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Thomas Corwin. 



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THE 



LEADING ORATORS 

OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS, 

r rom the r irst Presidential Canvass 

TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



PORTRAITS, REMINISCENCES, AND 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF 

AMERICA'S DISTINGUISHED POLITICAL SPEAKERS. 



A CONCISE HISTORY OF 

POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES, TOGETHER WITH 

A CHRONOLOGICAL PRESENTATION OF PRESIDENTIAL 

AND VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEES. 

BY •/ 

WILLIAM C. ROBERTS. 



77^ 



NEW YORK: 

L. K. STROUSE & CO., Publishers, 

95 Nassau Street. 

1884. 



Copyright, 1884, 
By L. K. Strouse & Co. 



INDEX. 



Political Parties 

Adams, John 42 

Adams, Samuel 26 

Beecher, Henry Ward 128 

Blaine, James G , „. 243 

burlingame, anson 149 

Burr, Aaron 33 

Butler, Benjamin F 205 

Calhoun, John C 64 

Card, Albert Miller 21S 

Cass, Lewis 109 

Choate, Rufus 84 

Clay, Henry 52 

Colfax, Schuyler 130 

CONKLING, EoSCOE IQ7 

Corwin, Thomas 102 

Curtis, George William 160 

Cushing, Caleb 94 

Davis, Henry Winter 120 

Depew, Chauncey M 246 

Dickenson, Daniel S no 

Dougherty, Daniel. 170 

Douglass, Frederick 134 

Douglas, Stephen A 146 

Evarts, William M 179 

Everett, Edward 81 

Ewing, Thomas 72 

Fessenden, William Pitt 105 

Garfield, James A 226 

Grow, Galusha A 16S 



Hamilton, Alexander 37 

Hampton, Wade 204 

Hancock, John 21 

Harrison, Carter H 196 

Hendricks, Thomas A 214 

Henry, Patrick 20 

Hubbard, Richard B 184 

Ingersoll, Robert G 248 

Kilpatrick, Hugh Judson 194 

Lee, Richard Henry 27 

Lincoln, Abraham 144 

Logan, John A 220 

Mahone, William y 237 

Marshall, Thomas 116 

Phillips, Wendell 90 

Prentiss, Sargeant S 96 

Randolph, John 48 

Sciiurz, Carl 216 

Seymour, Horatio 166 

Seward, William H 153 

Schenck, Robert C 137 

Sherman, John 234 

Sumner, Charles 123 

Van Buren, Martin 57 

Webster, Daniel 68 

Williams, George H. 183 

Wirt, William 78 

Woodford, Stewart L 207 

Youmans, Leroy F 229 



LIST OF PORTRAITS. 



TAGE 

' i. Thomas Corwin Frontispiece 

2. Daniel S. Dickenson 17 

3. Wendell Phillips 31 

4. Henry Ward Beecher 45 

5. Frederick Douglass 59 

6. George William Cruris 73 

7. Horatio Seymour 87 

s. Daniel Dougherty 99 

q. William M. Evarts 1 1 1 

10. Richard B. Hubbard 121 

11. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick 131 

12. roscoe conkling m 1 

' 13. Wade Hampton 15 1 

14. Benjamin F. Butler 161 

15. Stewart L. Woodford. . 17 1 

[6. Carl Schurz lSl 

17. Albert Miller Card I 9 1 

[8. Leroy F. Youmans 201 

19. William Mahone 2lT 

20. James G. Blaine 221 

21. Chauncey M. Depew 2 3 J 

22. Robert G. Ingersoli • • • • 2 ^ 1 



POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Party issues were not clearly drawn until the beginning of the Revolu- 
tionary War, when the question arose on what terms the colonies should 
continue their relations with England. 

WHIG PARTY. 

Whig and Tory then became the respective party designations, after 
factions which bore those appellations in England. 

The former wished to remain colonists with guaranteed rights, while the 
latter were willing to continue that relation under such dispensation as the 
Crown saw fit to extend. 

The Whigs, early in 1776, took advanced ground, and advocated abso- 
lute separation from Great Britain, while the Tories held to royal alle- 
giance. 

Step by step this progressive party moved toward the dawning liberty 
which it saw beyond the clouds of British subjection, and on the 7th of 
June it moved, in Congress, the resolution of separation, and on the 4th of 
July following the Declaration of Independence was adopted. 

The Whigs fought for a cause as righteous as any which ever arrayed 
men in combat, and after years of struggle they won a victory which the 
prophetic patriots could not then compass, and which, more than a century 
later, is without a boundary line. The Whig party fulfilled the mission 
for which it was organized, and in 1787 ceased to exist. 

TORY PARTY. 

The Tory party was composed of the timid and conservative who feared 
the strength of England, and who had misgivings of the ultimate success 



8 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

of the patriots— a large professional class dependent upon royal landhold- 
ers and all the royal officers. 

The party died with the Revolution in 1783, when its members, such as 
had not been put to death, banished, exiled or transported, or had not 
abandoned the United States, commingled with the Whigs. 

When the issues of the Revolution were substantially settled, the Whig 
party, the only one from 1783 to 1787, became divided as to the best 
means of establishing a national government. 

One faction, called Particularists, held that State government should be 
supreme, while the other, styled Strong Government men, maintained that 
local self-government was inadequate to meet the public service, which 
could only be controlled through a central power. 

From a discussion of these questions, as to the best basis for a govern- 
ment of the United States, developed the Federal and anti-Federal parties 
in 1787. 

FFDFRAL PARTY. 

The Federal party advocated a Constitution and the anti-Federal party 
a Confederation. 

The condition of the country at this period, with threatened anarchy and 
civil war, gave strength to the measure advocated by the Federalists, and 
by the adoption of the Constitution in 1778 they won their first party vic- 
tory. 

The)' developed into Broad Constructionists, desiring to interpret the 
Constitution in such a manner as would invest the Federal Government 
with the greatest amount of power. 

The Federal party was in the minority until the election of Washington 
to the Presidency, when the prestige of his name gave it numerical strength, 
and the reins of government passed into its hands. 

As a party, the Federalists maintained an existence for nearly thirty-three 
years, during which time it settled the form of government under the Con- 
stitution, elected and controlled the administration of Washington during 
two terms, and of Adams during one term. 

The election, in 1800, of Jefferson, the Republican nominee, broke the 

itre of Federal power, and in name only it maintained an existence for 

twenty years thereafter, when its members commingled with the Republi- 



POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



ANTI-FEDERAL PARTY. 

The an ti -Federalists, formerly known as Particularists, were the domi- 
nant faction until the adoption of the Constitution/ This name they were 
given by their opponents, because they opposed a Federal government under 
the Constitution. When that measure was adopted the anti-Federalists 
became close Constructionists, desiring to interpret the Constitution in its 
most literal sense. 

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

In 1789-90 the Constitution had gained such popularity that the minor- 
ity withdrew all opposition, and vied with its founders in promoting its 
beneficent objects. They claimed to be the true friends of Republican 
g< ivernment and the advocates of popular institutions, and rejected, as in- 
appropriate, the anti-Federal name, and assumed the title of Democratic 
Republican. 

In 1 79 1 the name " Democratic" was generally dropped, and the organ- 
ization, a direct outgrowth from the anti-Federal party, was known as the 
Republican party. (For party nominations and elections in 1796, see 
Chapter III.) 

The Republican or Democratic-Republican party was in existence from 
1791 until 1828. 

It elevated Thomas Jefferson to the Vice-Presidency in 1796 ; promoted 
him to the Presidency in 1800 ; re-elected him in 1804 ; chose Madison 
as his successor in 1808 ; elected Madison in 1812 ; elected and sup- 
ported Monroe two terms, and selected fohn Quincy Adams as his succes- 
sor in 1824. 

From 181 7 to 1828 this organization was substantially the only party in 
existence, it having absorbed the last of the Federalists at the close of the 
campaign in 1820. 

CLINTONIAN PARTY. 

In 181 2 a faction broke out of the Republican party which opposed the 
monopoly which Virginia had acquired in supplying executive officers, and 
to the caucus system, which disfranchised the people from selecting candi- 
dates, and who were also dissatisfied with the foreign policy of the Adminis- 
tration. 



IO THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

This movement was led by De Witt Clinton, and his supporters were 
called " Clintonians. " 

This element returned to the Republican fold in 1815. (See Chapter 
XII.) 

PEACE PARTY. 

The Peace party came from the ranks of the Federalists in 181 2. Their 
ostensible aim was for the purpose of instilling in the minds of the people 
the benign doctrines of peace, but their professions were mistrusted, and it 
was believed their ulterior purpose was to oppose the war and array the 
religious sentiment of the country against the Administration. 

The Washington Benevolent Society was established at about the same 
time, having similar objects in view. 

ANTI-MASONIC PARTY. 

in September, 1826, William Morgan, a royal arch- Mason, threatened 
to publish the " secrets" of Masonry. He was arrested for a debt of two 
dollars, and placed in jail, from which he was taken at night by men whose 
identity has never been discovered, and conveyed to Fort Niagara. He 
disappeared on the 29th of the same month, and was never seen afterward. 

Great excitement followed this occurrence, as it was charged the Masons 
had put him to death. The following year the subject was launched into 
politics, and the anti-Masonic party was organized, which found a few sup-' 
porters in all the principal towns and cities of the country. The object of 
the party was the suppression of secret societies and the exclusion from 
office of their supporters; It held an existence from 1827 until 1834, when 
it became a constituent with the Nullification and National Republican 
organizations, which formed the Whig party in that year. (See Chapter 
XII.) 

DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

A division occurred in the Republican party in 1827, and the faction 
which supported General Jackson dropped the name of Republican and 
adopted the title " Democratic" " as a novel, distinct, and popular name, 
in 1828." This marks the date of the birth of the present Democratic 
party, though until 1836 its adherents were generally called "Jackson 
men." The members of this new organization, being close Construction- 
ists, claimed political lineage from Jefferson. 



POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. II 

The Democrats elected General Jackson, their first candidate, in 1828, 
and re-elected him in 1S32. They gained another victory with Van 
Buren in 1836, and met with defeat against General Harrison, the Whig 
nominee, in 1840. 

With James K. Polk they were again victorious in 1844, and suffered 
defeat with their candidate, Lewis Cass, in 1848. Franklin Pierce led the 
party again to power in 1852, and their candidate, James Buchanan, was 
inaugurated in 1857. They lost control of the Government in 1861, and 
in six successive elections they have failed to seat a President. 

It will therefore be seen that this great party has held a dominant influ- 
ence over the politics of the nation for more than half a century. 

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

The faction of the Republican party which adhered to Adams in 1827, 
when the division in that party occurred, retained the name Republican, to 
which they prefixed the " National " in 1828, to indicate the national 
character of their principles in contradistinction from the sectional policy 
which it was charged the Jackson or Democratic party upheld. 

This party presented Presidential candidates in 1828 and 1S32, and 
suffered defeat at both elections. It merged into the Whig party in 1834, 
when its name became extinct. (See Chapters XI. and XII. ) 

NULLIFICATION PARTY. 

In 1831, after the disruption which occurred in President Jackson's 
cabinet, John C. Calhoun set out to organize a party of his own. He 
visited the States of Georgia and South Carolina, and sought to array the 
slave power against the Administration, and advised resistance to tariff enact- 
ments. Nullification was the principal doctrine which he advocated, and 
his party bore that name. 

He drew but a meagre following, and in 1S33 his organization dis- 
banded, when part of his followers returned to the Democratic party, and the 
balance found refuge with the Whigs in 1834. 

WHIG PARTY. 

In 1834 three parties — the National Republican, anti-Mason, and Nulli- 
fication — converged and formed the Whig party. This movement was in- 
duced by intense political excitement, occasioned by President Jackson's 



12 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

order to remove the "deposits," and many Democrats joined the Whig 
ranks. 

In 1836 the Whigs nominated General Harrison, who met with defeat. 
He was presented to the people again in 1840, and was elected. Four 
years later Henry Clay was given the nomination, and was retired without 
Presidential honors. 

General Taylor was nominated in 1848, and carried the election. 

General Scott was the last candidate of this party, and was defeated by 
Franklin Pierce in the election of 1852. After this election the party 
became disorganized and shortly disbanded, its members finding shelter in 
vaiious camps which at that time were located on the political field. 

LOCOFOCO PARTY. 

In 1835 a fragment of the Democratic party, which styled themselves 
the " Equal-Rights" party, held a meeting in Tammany Hall, New York. 
In the midst of great confusion which prevailed, the lights were extin- 
guished. The room was immediately relighted with candles and locofoco 
matches. From this circumstance the name of Locofoco was for a time 
applied to the Democratic party by the opposition. 

ABOLITION PARTY. 

Various causes conduced to the organization of this party in 1839. The 
sympathy felt for slaves, and the measures taken in Congress to suppress 
petitions in their behalf, were leading elements in its formation. The anti- 
Slavery Society, organized in 1833, and which dissolved in 1839, com- 
posed the major portion of the membership of the Abolition party. 

This party held a convention at Warsaw, N. Y. , in the fall of 1839 (see 
Chapter XIV.), and in 1S40 dropped its distinctive name for Liberty party. 

LIBERTY PARTY. 

In 1840 the Abolition party underwent a change of name, and Liberty 
party was the title adopted. Its principles continued the same. It had 
immediate accessions from both the Whig and Democratic ranks. It held 
national conventions in 1843 an( ^ x ^47 ( see Chapters XV. and XVI.), and 
merged into the Free Soil party in 1848. 



POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 3 

BARNBURNERS AND HUNKERS. 

These titles were bestowed upon two factions of the Democratic party in 
the State of New York. 

Disagreement in the Legislature, in 1S43, over some minor questions in- 
vited a party rupture, which led to irreconcilable estrangement between the 
factions, and in the Polk canvass of 1844 they were given the respective 
names of Barnburners and Hunkers. 

NATIVE AMERICAN PARTY. 

In 1843 some illiberal-minded men, becoming alarmed at the great in- 
flow of foreigners to some of the principal American ports, organized to 
disfranchise Catholics and immigrants from holding public offices. Its 
followers were generally styled " Natives." It passed out of existence in 
1852. 

THE FREE-SOIL PARTY 

was made up of the Liberal party and the Barnburners, who retired 
from the Democratic Convention held in Baltimore in 1848. It held two 
national conventions, developed little strength, and expired about the year 
1855. 

SILVER-GRAY PARTY. 

At a Whig State Convention held at Syracuse in September, 1850, a 
resolution was introduced which declared that William H. Seward deserved 
the thanks of the convention for the fidelity with which he had sustained, 
in the United States Senate, the liberal and long-cherished principles of the 
Whig party. At this William Duer, a member of Congress and a sup- 
porter of the Administration, proclaimed that if the resolution were adopted 
the Whig party would be broken up. The resolution was adopted, and 
the delegates who opposed such an indorsement of Mr. Seward's course, 
together with the chairman, withdrew from the convention, and assembled 
in another hall, and called a convention of President Fillmore's friends to 
meet at Utica on the 1 7th of October following. The delegates met agree- 
ably to call, renounced allegiance to the Whigs, and organized a party 
which they christened the " Silver Gray." The party approved the Presi- 
dent's course. Its life, like that of all parties which had sprung from 
personal and factional animosity, was short, 



14 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



AMERICAN PARTY. 

Substantially the same motives which induced the organization of the 
Native American party in 1843 contributed to the formation of the Ameri- 
can party in 1852. In fact, it may be said it was the same organization, 
proclaiming the same doctrines under a new name. Added to the old 
creed was the "purification of the ballot-box" and the retention of the 
Bible in the public schools. Its members were sworn to support the can- 
didates nominated by the order. It was generally called the Know-Noth- 
ing party, because, when interrogated concerning their order, the members 
replied they knew nothing. 



KNOW-NOTHING PARTY. 

(See American Par/y.) 

REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

In 1854, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was proposed, 
the people were aroused to a profound degree that an assault upon liberty 
was attempted. 

This awakened earnest discussion from the pulpit, the platform, and the 
press, and large numbers of anti-Slavery men belonging to the different 
parties held the conviction that success could be secured only " through 
the formation of a new party, which could act without the embarrassment of 
a pro-slavery wing." The first steps toward the organization of such a 
party was during the early months of 1854, at Ripon, Fond du Lac 
County, Wisconsin. A meeting was then held on the last of February, 
which adopted a resolution that if the Kansas-Nebraska Bill should pass 
they would " throw old party organizations aside and organize a new party 
on the sole Issue of the non-extension of slavery." A meeting was held 
at the same place on the 20th of March following, and the sentiment was 
in favor of adopting the name of " Republican." The movement thus 
initiated perfected a party organization in that State at a convention held 
the following July. A leading journal in Detroit " took ground in favor 
of disbanding the Whig and Free-Soil parties, and of the organization of a 



POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 5 

new party composed of all the opponents of slavery extension." The re- 
sound of this declaration was a mass convention held in Michigan on the 
6th of July, which adopted a platform opposing the extension of slavery. 

About the year 1853, by a fusion of Whigs, Free Soilers, anti-Nebraska 
Democrats, and anti-Slavery Americans, the organisation of the Republican 
party was perfected. 

General Fremont, the party's first Presidential nominee, met with defeat 
in 1856. 

Lincoln carried the election in i860, and since his inauguration, in 
1 86 1, the party has been in power. 



LABOR- REFORM PARTY. 

Societies, which were called " Trades Union," organized in most of the 
cities throughout the country, had for their objects reforms looking to a 
greater equality of condition among the people. 

In 1872 they had gained such proportions as to make themselves felt in 
national politics, and in that sphere they acquired the title of the Labor- 
Reform party. (See Chapter XXII.) 

Later on an element with communistic tendencies ingratiated themselves, 
to a certain extent, in the iavor of this party, with questionable advantage 
for its good. 

LIBERAL REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

This organization grew from a faction which left the Republican party, in 
1870, dissatisfied with the Grant administration and the course of the party 
at that time. 

It developed into national importance in 1871, and presented a Presi- 
dential ticket in 1872. (See Chapter XXII.) 

TEMPERANCE PARTY. 

Temperance societies, which have been in existence all over the country 
for many years, combined their forces in 1872, and assumed a national 
party existence. In 1876 the name was changed to Prohibition Reform 
party. 



16 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



THE NATIONAL GREENBACK PARTY. 

The "hard times" which followed the financial disturbances of 1873 
gave birth to the inflation theories advocated by this party. 

They urged an increase of the paper money of the Government, claiming 
such action would prevent immense losses by the depreciation of values. 
They also contended that the paper money issued by the Government 
should never be redeemed, but should be " coined paper," made, by the 
authority of the Government, good for all debts, public and private. 

The party made Presidential nominations in 1876 and 1880. (See 
Chapters XXIII. and XXIV.) 




Daniel S. Dickenson. 



CHAPTER I. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1788. 

FEDERAL NOMINEES. 

For President, 
George Washington of Virginia. 

For Vice-President. 
John Adams of Massachusetts. 
John Jay of New York. 
John Rutledge of South Carolina. 

ANTI-FEDERAL NOMINEES. 

For Vice-President. 
John Hancock of Massachusetts. 
Samuel Adams of Massachusetts. 
George Clinton of New York. 

The Continental Congress, in September, 1788, set the first Wednesday 
of January, 1789, for the choice of Presidential electors, the first Wednes- 
day of February for the electoral choice of a President and Vice-President 
of the United States, and the first Wednesday (4th day) of March for in- 
augurating the new Government. 

Fortunately for the Union at that critical period, there was one man in 
America to whom all eyes instinctively turned, and upon whom the country 
leaned for guidance in this new experience with equal confidence and 
safety. 

George Washington, by the voice of the eleven States which had then 
ratified the Constitution, was the chosen candidate for the Presidency, with- 
out a competitor. 



20 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

It was for the Vice-Presidency that the ambitious men of that time 
thirsted, an office clearly of empty honor in itself, but thought to carry a 
valuable estate in expectancy. Pennsylvania presented no candidates for 
the office, and New Vork had forfeited all claims upon it by reason of her 
Legislature failing to agree' on the mode of choosing electors. 

Eleven candidates received electoral votes for the office of Vice-President. 



PATRICK HENRY. 

Patrick Henry, one of America's most distinguished natural orators, was 
born at Studley, Hanover County, Virginia, May 29th, 1736. 

With a very limited and imperfect education, he commenced life as an 
agriculturist, and failing to earn a livelihood in that vocation, by the as- 
sistance of his father and father- in law he was started in a store. 

It was soon discovered that the future orator possessed none of the traits 
which secure success in trade. 

He was indolent and careless, and in two or three years the store was 
closed, and Patrick Henry, the merchant, was insolvent. After this ex- 
perience he vacillated between cultivating the soil and keeping store, alter- 
nately failing in both occupations, until the age of twenty-four, when he 
began the study of law. 

After six weeks' study he presented himself before the judges, who 
granted him a license with hesitation, and only after a promise to study 
further before commencing practice. He had no clients, and it is related 
that the distress of his family became extreme. 

At the age of twenty-seven he was retained in a case which seemed so 
hopeless that it was not deemed worth while to employ a better advocate. 
The controversy, in which the clergy were a party, was touching the emolu- 
ments to which they were entitled under the law of the Established Church 
ot England in Virginia. Their case was lucidly and calmly stated by Peter 
Lyons, a distinguished counsellor of the time, and Patrick Llenry rose to 
reply. The array before him was terrifying, and the presence of his father 
in the chair of presiding magistrate increased his embarrassment. His ex- 
ordium was awkward and confused. He visibly faltered. The crowd, 
whose sympathies were all on the side which he represented, hung their 
heads and gave up the contest. The clergy smiled and exchanged glances 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 788. 21 

of triumph. The father of the speaker bowed his head in mortification. 
But suddenly the spell was changed. Patrick Henry, by some mysterious 
and almost supernatural transformation, stood anew in the presence of his 
auditors, the foremost orator in the land. 

Those who heard him in this speech said that he " made their blood to 
run cold and their hair to stand on end." Under his terrible invective the 
clergy were driven from the room, and the jury, after retiring for an 
instant, brought in a verdict of only one penny damages. Thus, at a 
single step, Patrick .Henry rose to the first rank among the orators of the 
time. 

Momentous events followed in rapid succession his rise to eminence, 
and at the age of twenty-nine he had gained the reputation of being the 
greatest orator and political thinker of a land abounding with public speak- 
ers and statesmen. 

In 1788 he was a member of the convention to ratify the Federal Con- 
stitution, but he opposed it with all the strength and eloquence of his 
youth. Although his opposition afterward abated in a measure, he always 
remained fearful that the final result would be the destruction of the rights 
of States. 

In politics he was a Whig, an anti-Federalist, and a Republican. Patrick 
Henry was undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary men of an extraor- 
dinary epoch. In the House of Burgesses he was without a peer. In the 
General Congress the men of the North acknowledged that Patrick Henry 
was the greatest orator whom they had ever heard. To that mysterious 
eloquence which swayed and took captive all minds he united a nerve and 
resolution which were indomitable. As a mere logician, apart from the 
advocate, Henry had no conspicuous talent. He lives and will always live 
as the orator of the Revolution, who voiced most boldly and clearly the 
principles of human freedom. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 

The Declaration of Independence, though signed by all the members of 
the Congress, was accompanied, in its first publication, by the signature of 
John Hancock alone — an accidental association, which, although it confer- 
red no special title to praise beyond his colleagues, preoccupied the ad- 



22 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

miration of the public, and has contributed, in no small degree, to the ex- 
tension of his fame. The boldness of the writing rendered it conspicuous, 
and to this day it is synonymous with a brave and fearless writer, who has 
nothing to conceal, and takes all risk. 

John Hancock, son of a gentleman of the same name, was born January 
1 2th, 1737, near the present village of Quincy, Massachusetts. This same 
village gave birth to Samuel Adams ; and besides furnishing two of our 
chief magistrates, may be noted for the production of three of the most dis- 
tinguished characters of the Revolution. 

Under the care of his uncle John Hancock received his education, grad- 
uating from Harvard College in 1754, and immediately entered as a clerk 
in the counting-house of his uncle. In 1760 he visited England, was 
present at the funeral of George II. and at the coronation of his successor. 
Soon after his return to America, at the age of twenty-seven years, by in- 
heritance from his uncle, he became possessed of a vast property. 

He was first chosen selectman of the town of Boston, an office which he 
held many years, and was elected in 1766, with James Otis, Samuel Adams, 
and Thomas Gushing, a representative to the General Assembly of the 
province. In 1 766 his sloop Liberty was seized for contravention of the 
commercial laws, and in the riot which followed the royal customs com- 
missioners barely escaped with their lives. After the massacre of Boston, 
in 1770, he inveighed with much spirit against the troops, demanding their 
removal from the town, and five years afterward the attempt to seize his 
person led to the first revolutionary battle at Concord, Massachusetts. In 
1774 Hancock was President of the Provincial Congress at Philadelphia. 
Returning to Massachusetts, he assisted in framing the Constitution, and 
in 1780 was chosen first governor. He was annually elected to this dig- 
nity till 1785, and again from 1787 to 1793, sitting as an ordinary member 
of the Legislature in the interval. He died suddenly at Quincy, October 
8th, 1793. 

Such is the condensed record of an active life during times of intense 
excitement. 

During the first provocations of the British Government, by which she 
excited discontent and opposition in her colonies, his diligence and talents 
were exerted conspicuously. It was by his agency and that of a few other 
citizens of Boston that, for the purpose of causing such duties to be re- 
voked, associations were instituted to prohibit the importation of British 
goods — a policy which, soon afterward, being imitated in the other colo- 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 788. 23 

nies, first kindled the apprehensions and awoke the vigilance of the people 
to the preservation of their liberties. In 1769 the Governor of the prov- 
ince introduced into Boston several regiments of British troops, a measure 
that, more than all others, served to irritate the inhabitants and nourish the 
seeds of rebellion. 

On the evening of the 5th of March, 1770, a small party of British sol- 
diers parading in King Street, Boston, were assailed with balls of snow and 
other accidental weapons by a tumultuary assemblage of citizens, who, by or- 
der of the commanding officer, were repelled with a discharge of musketry, 
and several of the crowd were wounded and a few were killed. This affray, 
which is usually termed "the massacre of Boston," although originating 
in the provocations of the people, was regarded as an act of atrocious in- 
iquity, which required an immediate and signal revenge. An assembly of 
the citizens was convened on the succeeding day, in which Mr. Hancock, 
with some others, was appointed to request of the governor a removal of 
the British troops from the town. 

The bodies of the slain being, a few days after their decease, borne to the 
place of burial, were deposited in the same tomb. The speech delivered 
by Mr. Hancock upon this occasion was a bold and burning denuncia- 
tion of tyranny. The following extract may be given as a specimen of its 
style and temper : 

" But I gladly quit this theme of death — I would not dwell too long 
upon the horrid effects which have already followed from quartering regu- 
lar troops in this town. Standing armies are sometimes composed of per- 
sons unfit to live in civil society ; who are equally indifferent to the glory 
of a George or a Louis ; who, for the addition of one penny a day to their 
wages, would desert from the Christian cross and fight under the crescent 
of the Turkish Sultan ; from such men as these, what has not a State to 
fear? With such as these usurping Caesar passed the Rubicon ; with such 
as these he humbled mighty Rome, and forced the mistress of the world to 
own a master in a traitor. These are the men whom sceptred robbers now 
employ to frustrate the designs of God, and render vain the bounties which 
His gracious hand pours upon His creatures." 

In 1775 it was proposed by the American officers to bombard the city of 
Boston. This would have financially ruined Mr. Hancock, but with mag- 
nificent patriotism he said that " his private fortune should, on no occa- 
sion, be an obstacle to the interests of his country." 

In stature Mr. Hancock was above the middle size. Of excellent propor- 



24 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

tion of limbs, a benign countenance ; possessing a flexible and harmonious 
voice, a manly and dignified aspect. 

As an orator Mr. Hancock spoke without elaboration or pretension, but 
agreeably on all subjects. His harangues exhibit no common comprehen- 
sion of things or powers of language, and were especially well suited to the 
dispositions of the times in which he lived. In his private and social life 
he was passionately addicted to what were then called the " elegant pleas- 
ures" — dancing, music, concerts, routs, assemblies, card parties, rich wines, 
social dinners, and festivities. His equipage was magnificent, and such as 
at present is unknown in America. His apparel was sumptuously em- 
broidered with gold, silver, and lace ; he rode with six beautiful bays and 
with servants in livery. It is no trivial commendation that, possessing a 
superfluity of wealth, he betook himself to honorable and laborious pur- 
suits, and that arrogance or insolence were foreign to his kindly nature. 



PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S FIRST CABINET. 

Secretary of State. — Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, appointed September 
26th, 1789. 

Secretary of 'the Treasury. — Alexander Hamilton, of New York, appointed 
September 1 ith, 1789. 

Secretary of War and of the Navy. — Henry Knox, of Massachusetts, ap- 
pointed September 12th, 1789. 

Attorney-General. — Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, appointed September 
26th, 1789. 



CHAPTER II. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1792- 

FEDERAL NOMINEES. 

For President. 
George Washington of Virginia. 

For Vice- Presiden t. 
John Adams of Massachusetts. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For Vice-President. 

George Clinton of New York. 
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. 
Aaron Burr of New York. 

caucuses and nominations. 

Caucuses were held in 1792 by both parties at the seat of Government, 
then located at Philadelphia. Washington's administration had been so 
acceptable that he was nominated for a second term without opposition in 
his own party, and the Republicans made no nomination for that office. 
John Adams was placed in nomination by the Federalists for a second 
Vice-Presidential term, and three candidates were named by the Republi- 
cans for that position. 

The election gave General Washington the entire electoral vote for the 
Presidency, while John Adams only received eleven votes more than a 
majority. 



26 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



SAMUEL ADAMS. 

Since the formation of our Government, in some one of the public walks 
of life, the Adams have made their presence felt. While a few members of 
this distinguished family have succeeded in work alien from that generally 
denominated " political," their bent and hereditary talent has drawn them 
easily and naturally into politics, and with wealth, education, and honor- 
able ambition their successes will not seem strange to the careful student. 

Samuel Adams was born at Boston, Massachusetts, September 27th, 
1722, thus being a native of the same commonwealth as John Adams, his 
second cousin. 

He studied at Harvard, but owing to his father's misfortunes in business, 
in connection with a banking speculation — the " manufactory scheme" — 
he had to leave before completing his course, and to relinquish his inten- 
tion of becoming a Congregational clergyman. He received his degree as 
A.M., however, and it is worthy of note, as showing the tendency of his 
political opinions at that time — 1743 — that his thesis was a defence of the 
affirmative reply to the question, " Whether it be lawful to resist the 
supreme magistrate, if the commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved ?" 

The failure of the banking scheme above referred to, in consequence of 
the limitations imposed by English law, made Adams still more decided in 
his assertion of the rights of American citizens, and in his opposition to Par- 
liament. 

He gave up his business, in which he had little success, and became 
tax-collector for the city of Boston, whence he was called by his political 
opponents " Samuel the publican." 

In all the proceedings which found issuance at last in the Declaration of 
Independence, Mr. Adams was a conspicuous actor. He took part in the 
numerous town meetings, drafted the protest which was sent up by Boston 
against the taxation scheme of Grenville (May, 1764), and being chosen 
next year a member of the General Court of Massachusetts, soon became 
one of the leaders in debate. Upon his entry into the house he was ap- 
pointed clerk, and had much influence in arranging the order of business 
and framing enactments. Attempts were more than once made by the 
English Governor to win him over by the offer of a place, but he proved 
inflexible. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1792. 2/ 

His uncompromising resistance to the British Government continued ; 
he was a prominent member of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, 
and was one of those who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. 
He took an active part in framing the Constitution of the State of Massa- 
chusetts, and was for several years President of the Senate of that State. 
He held the office of its lieutenant-governor from 1789 to 1794, and gover- 
nor from 1794 to 1797, retiring from public life the latter year, partly on 
account of age, but partly also because the Federalists were then in the 
ascendant, and he himself was inclined to the Jefferson, or Republican 
party. He died at Boston October 3d, 1803. 

Some witty writer has said : " To steal my purse is wicked, but to ap- 
propriate my ideas is flattery. It shows appreciation.'' In an oration on 
American Independence, delivered in Philadelphia August 1st, 1776, 
Adams characterizes the English as "a nation of shopkeepers." The 
oration was translated into French, and published at Paris. It is not un- 
likely that Napoleon's use of this phrase was unintentional "flattery" of 
Mr. Adams. 

Mr. Adams had great courage and determination, but at the same time 
was somewhat narrow-minded and bigoted, both in religion and politics. 
He was prejudiced against Washington, whose conduct of the war his 
ignorance of military matters led him to think weak and dilatory ; and the 
confidence reposed in Washington, as first President of the Republic, seemed 
to him to savor of aristocracy. His personal honor was never doubted, even 
by the political enemies necessarily made in a long and active life. 



RICHARD HENRY LEE. 

The part borne by the Lee family, of Virginia, in the formation of our 
Republic, is second to none. Their ancestor, Richard Lee, emigrated, with 
a numerous household, to America, in the reign of King Charles I., and 
settled in the country lying between the Rappahannock and Potomac 
rivers. He was a bold Royalist, and during the Protectorate of Cromwell 
was mainly instrumental in inducing the colony of Virginia to assume a 
semi-independent attitude. 

Among the descendants of this cavalier, all of whom were noted as 
scholars or statesmen, the most illustrious was Richard Henry Lee, his 
great-grandson, and one of the six distinguished sons of Thomas Lee. 



28 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Richard Henry Lee was born at Stratford, in Virginia, January 20th, 
1732. After obtaining the foundation of a liberal education, first at home 
and afterward in England, he spent a little time in travel. Returning to 
Virginia in 1752, he came into the possession of a fine property left him by 
his father, and for several years thereafter applied himself to varied studies. 

At the age of twenty-five he was appointed justice of the peace, and soon 
after was chosen a delegate to the House of Burgesses. He kept a diffi- 
dent silence during two sessions, his first speech being in strong opposi- 
tion to slavery, which he proposed to discourage, and eventually to abolish, 
by imposing a heavy tax on all further importations. 

In 1 764 Lee had applied for a collectorship under the Stamp Act, which 
afterward aroused the determined hostility of the colonies ; but on reflection 
he regretted doing so, and became an outspoken promoter of the most 
extreme democratic ideas. He did not come prominently before his 
countrymen until after this act was passed ; also the act of the British Par- 
liament, in 1764, declaring its right to tax the colonies, when, associated 
with Patrick Henry, he immediately became the centre of an active opposi- 
tion among the colonists of Virginia. In February, 1 766, he organized an 
association in Westmoreland, in accordance with Patrick Henry's famous 
resolution against the Stamp Act, and at the winter session of the Burgesses, 
Lee, with the aid of Patrick Henry, succeeded in carrying the House upon 
a test question against the united aristocratic elements of the colony. In 
1767 he spoke eloquently against the acts levying duties upon tea and 
other articles, and in 1768, in a letter to John Dickenson, of Pennsylvania, 
he made the suggestion of a private correspondence among the friends of 
liberty in the different colonies. . Lee is said also to have originated, in 
conversation with fellow-patriots in 1773, the plan of an intercolonial or 
Continental Congress. He was soon after sent as a delegate from Virginia 
to the first American Congress, which met at Philadelphia September 5th, 
1 774, and at once became a leader in the assembly. He had the chief 
part in the composition of some of those addresses to the king, the people 
of England, and the colonies, which compelled the great Chatham to admit 
that, " for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, 
under such complication of circumstances, no nation or body of men can 
stand in preference to the General Congress at Philadelphia." 

Lee is known to have penned the second address to the people of Great 
Britain, which was among the most effective papers of the time. 

When war between the colonies and the mother-country became inevi- 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 792. 29 

table, Lee was placed on the committees charged with preparing the muni- 
tions of war, and with devising all other means of offering a vigorous re- 
sistance to the British Government. His labors at this time were enormous. 

On the 7th of June, 1776, Lee made the most celebrated and impor- 
tant of all his speeches, when introducing in Congress the resolution declar- 
ing " that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and in- 
dependent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British 
crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of 
Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." 

During the War of Independence he was — in spite of ill-health — one of 
the most active of the patriotic party, chiefly, however, as a civilian. He 
was a member of the Congresses of 1778-80 and 1784-85. In 1784 he 
was elected President of Congress, and was one of the first Senators chosen 
from Virginia after the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Though 
strongly opposed to the adoption of that Constitution, owing to what he 
regarded as its dangerous infringements upon the independent power of the 
States, he accepted the place of Senator in hopes of bringing about amend- 
ments. He became a warm upholder of Washington's administration, and 
his prejudices against the Constitution were largely removed by its working 
in practice. 

He retired from public life in 1792, and died in his native State, at 
Chantilly, Westmoreland County, June 19th, 1794. 



PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S SECOND CABINET. 

Secretaries of State. — Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, continued ; 
Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, appointed January 2d, 1794 ; Timothy 
Pickering, of Massachusetts, appointed December 10th, 1795. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. — Alexander Hamilton, of New York, con- 
tinued; Oliver Wolcott, of Connecticut, appointed February 2d, 1795. 

Secretaries of War and of the Navy. — Henry Knox, continued ; Timothy 
Pickering, of Massachusetts, appointed January 2d, 1795 ; James 
McHenry, of Maryland, appointed January 27th, 1796. 

Attorneys-General. — Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, continued ; Wil- 
liam Bradford, of Pennsylvania, appointed January 28th, 1794 ; Charles 
Lee, of Virginia, appointed December 10th, 1795. 



CHAPTER III. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1796. 

FEDERAL NOMINEES. 

For President. 
John Adams of Massachusetts. 

For Vice-President. 
Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. 

For Vice-President. 
Aaron Burr of New York. 

caucuses and nominations. 

Washington's memorable farewell address, .issued to the people Septem- 
ber 17th, 1796, assured them that he would retire from public life at the 
end of his term. 

No other man in the nation could command its almost unanimous sup- 
port ; and when, therefore, the last hope of his continuing the executive head 
of the Government for another four years had been dispelled, the two great 
parties engaged in a struggle for ascendency, which, although the first party 
contest, was conducted in a manner seemingly so modern, that he who 
traces the history of party warfare will discover that little change has been 
made in the weapons which were then forged and those now used in polit- 
ical strife. 




Wendell Phillips. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 796. 33 

At caucuses held in Philadelphia, the candidates nominated by the Fed- 
eralists for President and Vice-President were John Adams and Thomas 
Pinckney ; on the part of the Republicans Thomas Jefferson and Aaron 
Burr were presented. 

The election, which occurred in the autumn, was a close one ; but the 
system of choosing a President and Vice-President which obtained from 
178910 1804 gave a victory to both parties. Mr. Adams, receiving the 
highest number of electoral votes, was declared President, and Mr. Jeffer- 
son, receiving the next highest number, was chosen Vice-President. 



AARON BURR. 

Aaron Burr, the third Vice-President of the United States, was born in 
Newark, New Jersey, on the 5th of February, 1756. 

His father, Aaron Burr, was the learned and devout president of Prince- 
ton College, and one of its principal founders. 

Both of Burr's parents died before he had reached the age of three 
years, and to this early deprivation of the precept and example of his ex- 
emplary parents may be attributed his erratic and immoral life. He en- 
tered Princeton College at the age of twelve, and graduated at sixteen, 
having won for himself, during his college career, the reputation of a 
youth of fine natural parts and studious application. While in his 
twentieth year, before he had completed his preparation for the bar, to 
which he had determined to devote himself, he joined the American 
army under Washington, at Cambridge, in 1775, as a private, and 
accompanied Arnold in the expedition to Canada, and was present at 
the attack on Quebec. For his services in this campaign he was made 
major, and invited to join the military family of Washington. Some event 
soon occurred which compelled Burr to leave headquarters, and produced 
in the mind of Washington an impression against him, which was never 
removed. As aide-de-camp to General Putnam, Burr was engaged in the 
defence of New York, and in 1777 he was made lieutenant-colonel, with 
the command of his regiment. He was in the camp at Valley Forge, and 
distinguished himself at the battle of Monmouth, where he commanded a 
brigade. During the winter of 1778-79 he was stationed in Westchester 
County, New York, and for a short time was in command at West Point. 



34 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Early in the following spring he resigned his commission, because he 
affected to despise the military talents of Washington. In 17S2 he com- 
pleted his legal course of study, and was admitted to the bar at Albany ; and 
in July of the same year he married Mrs. Prevost, the widow of a British 
officer who had died in the West Indies. In 1783 he entered upon the 
practice of his profession in the city of New York. The following year he 
was elected to the State Legislature, and five years later was appointed 
attorney-general of the State. 

In 1 79 1 he was chosen United States Senator, and while in the Senate he 
was recommended for the mission to France ; but Washington discerned 
qualities in him which he believed were unfit for a representative to that 
country to possess, and he refused to appoint him. Failing of a re-election 
to the United States Senate in 1797, he accepted another term in the State 
Legislature. In 1S00 he was an active participant in the Presidential can- 
vass, and to his efforts may be attributed the success of the Republicans in 
New York, upon the action of which State, at the beginning of the century, 
as now, the result of the Presidential election is thought to depend. 

On account of the prominence he thus obtained, the friends of Mr. 
Jefferson brought him forward for the Vice-Presidency. An equal number 
of votes having been cast for Jefferson and Burr in the electoral college, the 
election of a President devolved upon the House of Representatives, most 
of the Federal members voting for Burr. After a contest of several days 
Jefferson was elected President, and, in accordance with the provisions of 
the Constitution at that time, Burr became Vice-President. His conduct 
in permitting himself to be used by his political opponents, the Federalists, 
in order to defeat the candidate of his party, and whom he himself had 
supported, dissolved his connection with the Republicans, and destroyed his 
political influence. The Federalists nominated him for Governor of New 
York in 1804, but many of the leaders of that party refused to support 
him, and he was defeated. That bitter contest for the governorship led to 
the duel between Burr and Alexander Hamilton on the nth of July, 1804, 
in which the latter was killed. For this act Burr was disfranchised "by the 
laws of New York, and was indicted for murder in New Jersey. His term 
as Vice-President closed on the 4th of March, 1S05, and in April following 
he set out upon his mysterious Western journev. What were his real 
schemes is uncertain, and perhaps they were as indefinite in his own mind 
as they were anomalous to others ; but they seem to have included the 
formation of a new government in the South, on the borders of and perhaps 



CAMPAIGN OF 1796.' 35 

partly within the United States. He purchased four hundred thousand 
acres of land on the Red River, and gave his adherents to understand that 
the Spanish dominions were to be conquered. His proceedings excited so 
much alarm that on the 27th ot November, 1806, President Jefferson issued 
a proclamation against him. 

While endeavoring to make his way to the coast he was arrested in 
Alabama, February 19th, 1807, and brought to Richmond, Virginia, for 
trial, upon an indictment for high treason. The trial began on the 27th of 
March, and lasted very nearly six months. No overt act of treason could 
be proved, and the jury brought in the verdict, " Aaron Burr is not proved 
to be guilty under the indictment by any evidence submitted to us." He 
was accordingly set at liberty, and in 1S08 went to Europe, hoping to 
obtain means to effect his designs, which had now taken the form of an 
attempt on Mexico. In this he was disappointed, and after living abroad 
for some years, a part of the time in great poverty, he returned to America 
in 18 1 2, and resumed the practice of law in New York ; and while his talents 
brought him considerable business, he never regained the position which 
he had formerly held at the bar. In the seventy-eighth year of his age he 
married Madame Jumel, a wealthy widow, but was shortly afterward 
divorced, and died neglected on the 14th of September, 1836. He was an 
accomplished and skilful lawyer and an eloquent and effective speaker. 



PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS CABINET. 

Secretaries of Slate. — Timothy Pickering, of Massachusetts, continued ; 
John Marshall, of Virginia, appointed May 13th, 1800. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. — Oliver Wolcott, of Connecticut, continued ; 
Samuel Dexter, of Massachusetts, appointed January 1st, 1S01. 

Secretaries of War.— James McHenry, of Maryland, continued ; Samuel 
Dexter, of Massachusetts, appointed May 13th, 1800. 

Secretaries of Ike Navy. — George Cabot, of Massachusetts, appointed May 
3d, 1798 ; Benjamin Stoddard, of Maryland, appointed May 21st, 1798. 

Attorney-General— Charles Lee, of Virginia, appointed March 4th, 1797. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CAMPAIGN OF i 800. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. 

For Vice-President. 
Aaron Burr of New York. 

FEDERAL NOMINEES. 

For President. 
John Adams of Massachusetts. 

For Vice-President. 
Charles C. Pinckney of South Carolina. 

CAUCUSES AND NOMINATIONS. 

At a Republican Congressional caucus, held at Philadelphia to nominate 
candidates for the fourth Presidential term, Thomas Jefferson was placed at 
the head of the ticket, and Aaroti Burr second. The Federalists at their 
caucus, held in the same city, gave Adams a nomination for re-election, 
and Charles C. Pinckney was nominated for Vice-President. 

The vote for Jefferson and Burr being equal, there was no choice for 
President by the electoral votes. On the nth of February, 1801, the 
House of Representatives proceeded to the election of a President. On 
the first ballot eight States voted for Jefferson, six for Burr, and the votes of 
two were divided. 



CAMPAIGN OF 180O. U 

Balloting continued without a choice until the 17th, when on the thirty- 
sixth ballot ten States voted for Jefferson, four for Burr, and two in blank. 
Thomas Jefferson was thus elected President and Aaron Burr Vice-Presi- 
dent. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

Alexander Hamilton was born in the island of Nevis, West Indies, on 
the nth of January, 1757. Hamilton's father failed in business, and 
passed the remainder of his life in poverty. His mother died in his child- 
hood, but relatives of hers, who resided at Santa Cruz, took charge of the 
orphan, her only surviving child. There were but meagre advantages of 
education at Santa Cruz ; but possessing the Erench as well as the English 
tongue, young Hamilton eagerly read such books in both languages as 
fell in his way. At the age of twelve he was placed in the counting-house 
of a merchant at Santa Cruz ; but this occupation was not to his taste, and 
he spoke with disgust of the " grovelling condition of a clerk," and wished 
for a war. Notwithstanding his aversion to his employment, he applied 
himself to it with characteristic assiduity ; and the practical knowledge 
which he thus acquired was doubtless a stepping-stone to the remarkable 
ability which he subsequently acquired as a financier. 

He began to write early, and a description of a hurricane which visited 
St. Christopher in 1772 was so vividly described by his pen that it excited 
so much attention as to induce his friends to comply with his wish and 
send him to New York to be educated. On reaching this country he was 
placed in a grammar school at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and after a few 
months he entered King's (now Columbia) College. Besides the regular 
studies of an undergraduate, he attended lectures on anatomy, with the idea 
of becoming a physician. While he was thus engaged the war of the 
Revolution was inaugurated. 

On July 6th, 1774, he attended a public meeting in New York, and made 
a speech, which attracted attention to him. Shortly after, this he became a 
correspondent of Holt' 's Journal, the organ of the New York patriots. A 
pamphlet having appeared attacking the proceedings of the Continental 
Congress, Hamilton replied to it in another pamphlet, written with so 
much ability that its authorship was ascribed to Jay. This reply drew out 
an answer, to which Hamilton rejoined in a second pamphlet. These 



38 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

pamphlets, and another which he published in June, 1775, on the 
" Quebec Bill," gave him standing and consideration among the popular 
leaders. Meanwhile he had joined a volunteer corps, and applied himself 
to obtain information and instruction as an artillerist. In March, 1776, 
though yet but nineteen years of age, he obtained, on the recommendation 
of General Schuyler, then in command of the Northern Department, a 
commission as captain in a company raised by the State of New York. 
He led the fortunes of his brave band in all the principal engagements, 
until it was reduced to twenty- five men. The spirit and ability of the 
young captain had not escaped notice. He had received invitations from 
two major-generals to take a place in their staff, which he declined ; but 
he accepted a similar offer from Washington on the 1st of March, 1777, 
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1780 a rebuke from Washington, 
which he thought unmerited, was answered on the spot by a resignation of 
his position as a member of Washington's staff, which he declined to with- 
draw, though Washington sent him an apology. But this separation did 
not interrupt their mutual confidence and esteem. 

In 1 78 1 he began the study of law at Albany, and after a few months he 
obtained a license to practise. A few days later he was elected by the 
Legislature of New York a delegate to the Continental Congress, and took 
his seat in November, 1782. This he resigned when the British evacuated 
New York, and removed thither and commenced the practice of his profes- 
sion. An act had been passed by the Legislature just before, which was a 
very opportune provision in its benefits to young lawyers admitted at that 
time, disqualifying, as it did, all attorneys and counsellors from practice 
who could not produce satisfactory certificates of attachment to Whig prin- 
ciples. Most or all the old city lawyers fell within this prohibition, which 
remained in force for three or four years, and enabled Hamilton and other 
young advocates to immediately acquire a practice which otherwise they 
might have waited years. Hamilton immediately distinguished himself 
at the bar. He was one of the founders of the Manumission Society, 
the object of which was the abolition of slavery then existing in the 
Suite of New York. By appointment of the State Legislature he at- 
tended, in 17S6, the convention at Annapolis, and as a member of it 
drafted the address to the States which led to the convention the next year 
by which the Federal Constitution was framed. On October 27th, 1787, 
there appeared in a New York journal the first number of a series of 
papers entitled "The Federalist," in support of the Constitution against 



CAMPAIGN OF l800. 39 

the various objections urged to it. These papers continued till the follow- 
ing June, reaching the number of eighty-five, and were republished through- 
out the States, and made a strong impression in favor of the new scheme 
of government. Sixty-five of these papers were written by Hamilton, and 
the balance by Jay and Madison. They are still read and quoted as a 
standard commentary on the ends and aims of the Federal Constitution 
and its true interpretation. The Government having been put into opera- 
tion under it, and Congress at its first session having passed acts reorganiz- 
ing the executive departments, Washington, in 1789, selected Hamilton as 
Secretary of the Treasury. This office he resigned after six years' service, 
and resumed the practice of law in New York. He still remained, how- 
ever, a warm supporter of Washington's administration. In the prepara- 
tion of Washington's " Farewell Address" Hamilton's assistance was asked 
and given, precisely to what extent has been and still is a matter of con- 
troversy. In the summer of 1798 Washington was appointed commander- 
in-chief, with the title of lieutenant-general. He accepted, on the condition 
that he should not be called into active service and that Hamilton should 
be major-general, thus throwing upon him the details of the organization 
of the army. On the death of Washington, December 14th, 1799, Ham- 
ilton succeeded to the command-in-chief, but shortly afterward resigned his 
commission and again resumed the practice of law. This was the last public 
trust which he held, but he exerted a potent influence on the politics of 
the nation until his death, which occurred in New York on the 12th of 
July, 1804, from a mortal wound received at the hands of Aaron Burr in a 
duel which occurred the day before at Weehawken, on the Hudson River, 
opposite the city of New York. 

Hamilton enjoyed among his contemporaries, both friends and foes, a 
reputation for extraordinary ability. He excelled equally as a writer and 
speaker, and his influence over men was no less marked. 

Mr. Van Buren says : " That the policy of every administration of the 
Federal Government for the first twelve years of its existence was shaped, 
and the action of the Federal party guided by the opinions and advice of 
Hamilton, was the general impression of the opponents of that party, and 
of course known to the leading Federalists. In all my conversations with 
Mr. Jefferson, when he spoke of the course pursued by the Federal party, 
invariably personified it by saying ' Hamilton ' did or insisted thus ; and, 
on the other hand, ' the Republicans ' held or claimed so and so ; and 
that upon my calling his attention to the peculiarity of his expression, he 



40 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

smiled, and attributed his habit to the universal conviction of the Republi- 
cans that Hamilton directed everything." 



PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S FIRST CABINET. 

Secretary 0/ Stale. — James Madison, of Virginia, appointed March 5th, 
1801. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — Albert Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, appointed 
May 14th, 1801. 

Secretary of War. — Henry Dearborn, of Massachusetts, appointed 
March 5th, 1S01. 

Secretaries of the Navy. — Benjamin Stoddard, of Maryland, appointed 
March 5th, 1801 ; Robert Smith, of Maryland, appointed July 15th, 
1 801 ; Jacob Crowninshield, of Massachusetts, appointed March 2d, 1S05. 

Attorneys-General. — Levi Lincoln, of Massachusetts, appointed March 
5th, 1 801 ; Robert Smith, of Maryland, appointed March 2d, 1805. 



CHAPTER V. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1804. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. 

For Vice-President. 
George Clinton of New York. 

FEDERAL NOMINEES. 

For President. 
( harles C. Pinckney of South Carolina. 

For Vice-President. 
Rufus King of New York. 

CAUCUSES AND NOMINATIONS. 

Caucuses, composed of Congressmen, were held by both parties in the 
city of Philadelphia. 

Thomas Jefferson was nominated by the Republicans for President, and 
George Clinton was placed on the ticket for the office of Vice-President. 

The Federalists nominated Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King for the 
two highest offices. 

Jefferson's administration had been so popular that his re-election was 
assured, and no contest was made. The canvass was uneventful, and the 
election resulted in Jefferson's re-election by 162 out of 176 electoral votes. 

The electoral count for Vice-President gave Clinton the same number. 

No platforms were adopted by either party. 



42 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



JOHN ADAMS. 

John Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, on October 19th, 
1735. He graduated at Harvard College in 1755, and while he was pre- 
paring himself for the profession of law taught school at Worcester for two 
years. He was admitted to the bar in 1758, and afterward resided with 
his father at Braintree for several years. John Adams was pre-eminently 
gifted as an orator. With a clear and sonorous voice, a sound constitu- 
tion, a quick conception, a discriminating judgment, and a ready delivery, 
he soon won laurels as a lawyer and an orator. In 1761 his patriotic zeal 
was inflamed by the arguments of James Otis on the subject of writs of 
assistance. He married, in 1764, Abigail Smith, a woman in everyway 
worthy of him. The passage of the Stamp Act, in 1765, was the first occa- 
sion of his active participation in political affairs. He was offered the posi- 
tion of Advocate-General in 1763 by the Tory party, which he declined. 
He removed to Boston in 1768, and soon obtained an extensive practice. 
He was elected a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1770. Mr. 
Adams was one of the five delegates sent by Massachusetts to the first Con- 
tinental Congress in Philadelphia, • in 1774. To a friend who urged him 
not to engage in the perilous enterprise of revolution, Mr. Adams said : 
" The die is now cast. I have crossed the Rubicon. Sink or swim, live 
or die, survive or perish with my country is my unalterable determina- 
tion." 

In Congress he found a fitting arena for the exercise of those great talents, 
both of business and debate, which ultimately raised him to the leadership 
of that body. He was the first to propose George Washington as the Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the army. He was again elected to the Federal Con- 
gress, and went to Philadelphia in February, 1776. Soon afterward he 
said : " All our troubles and misfortunes arise from the reluctance of the 
Southern colonies to Republican government." On the 7th of June, 
i, he seconded the resolution of Richard Henry Lee, declaring " that 
these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States." 
Mr. \dams made a memorable speech on the subject on July 2d, in refer- 
ence to which Thomas Jefferson wrote : " John Adams was the ablest 
advocate and champion of independence on the floor of the House. His 
power of thought and expression moved his hearers from their seats." 



CAMPAIGN OF 1804. 43 

INIr. Adams was chairman of the Board of War appointed in June, 1776. 
He went to France as Commissioner of the United States in 1777, and re- 
mained in Paris two years. He was Minister at London from 1785 to 
1788. When, in 1789, Washington was inaugurated as President John 
Adams became Vice-President. He was again elected Vice-President in 
1792. Adams was elected President in 1796, but was defeated in 1800 by 
Thomas Jefferson. Having lived to see his son, John Quincy Adams, elected 
President, he died at Quincy, Massachusetts, on the 4th of July, 1826. 

The resolution of July 2d, 1776, which resulted in the framing of the 
Declaration of Independence, was to Mr. Adams a source of peculiar pleas- 
ure. The transport of his feelings may be seen vividly portrayed in the 
letter which he wrote to Mrs. Adams the succeeding day. 

" Vesterday, " he says, " the greatest question was decided that was ever 
debated in America, and greater, perhaps, never was or will be decided 
among men. A resolution was passed, without one dissenting colony, 
' that these United States are, and of right ought to be, free and indepen- 
dent States.' The day is passed. The 4th of July, 1776, will be a 
memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be 
celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. 
It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of 
devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be solemnized with pomps, 
shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end 
of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever. You will 
think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of 
the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this declara- 
tion, and support and defend these States ; yet, through all the gloom, I 
can see the rays of light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more 
than all the means, and that posterity will triumph." 

" Verily, there were prophets and seers in those days !' ' 

Mr. Adams's reply to Lord Howe will ever be remembered. "Sir," 
he said, " you may view me in any light you please, except in that of a 
British subject" 

Mr. Adams had not, until a few days previous, shown indications of 
rapidly failing strength. The 4th of July, 1826, found him unable to rise 
from his bed. He was not, however, aware of so near an approach of 
death. On being asked to suggest a toast for the customary celebration of 
•the day, he exclaimed, " Independence forever !" These were his last 
coherent words. 



44 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

It is known that the illustrious Jefferson departed a few hours before 
him, and we cannot close this imperfect sketch more appropriately than by 
borrowing the language of one who most deeply felt the impressiveness of 
this solemn and memorable event. 

' ' They departed, cheered by the benedictions of their country, to whom 
they left the inheritance of their fame and the memory of their bright ex- 
ample. ... At the last, extended on a bed of death, with but sense and 
sensibility left to breathe a last aspiration to heaven of blessing upon their 
country. 



PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S SECOND CABINET. 

Secretary of Slate. — James Madison, of Virginia,- continued. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — Albert Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, continued. 

Secretary of War. — Henry Dearborn, of Massachusetts, continued. 

Secretary of the Navy. — Jacob Crowninshield, of Massachusetts, con- 
tinued. 

Attorneys-General. — Robert Smith, of Maryland, continued; John 
Breckinridge, of Kentucky, appointed December 25 th, 1805 ; Caesar A. 
Rodney, of Delaware, appointed January 20th, 1807. 




Henry Ward Beecher. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1808. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 

James Madison of Virginia. 

For Vice-President. 

George Clinton of New York. 

FEDERAL NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Charles C. Pinckney of South Carolina. 

For Vice-President. 
Rufus King of New York. 

caucuses and nominations. 

In January, 1808, when Mr. Jefferson's second term was about to close, 
a Republican Congressional caucus was held at Washington to decide as to 
the relative claims of Madison and Monroe for the succession, the Legisla- 
ture of Virginia, which had been said" to exert a potent influence over such 
questions, being, on this occasion, unable to agree as to which of her 
favored sons should have the preference. Ninety-four out of the one hun- 
dred and thirty-six Republican members of Congress attended this caucus, 
and declared their preference of Madison, who received eighty-three votes, 
the remaining being divided between Monroe and George Clinton. 

Madison's nomination met with bitter opposition from a wing of the 
party, headed by John Randolph, and James Monroe was nominated by 
this dissenting element. 



48 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King were again placed in nomination 
by the Federalists. A vigorous canvass followed these nominations, owing 
to the break in the Republican ranks. During the campaign Clinton was 
suggested as a proper man to unite the contending forces in his party. 
These differences between the Republicans operated to strengthen the 
opposition party ; but the dominant party was too strong to be over- 
thrown by even its own bitter discord, and Madison was elected by a large 
majority. 

JOHN RANDOLPH. 

One of the most remarkable men that ever lived was John Randolph, of 
Roanoke. He was born on the 2d of June, 1773, near Petersburg, Vir- 
ginia. In his veins were blended the aristocratic blood of England and 
the blood royal of primitive America. His lordly bearing, aboriginal 
descent, eccentric career, and extraordinary eloquence early fastened the at- 
tention of his countrymen upon him, and through many years engrossed 
popular regard to a wonderful degree. John Randolph's early education, 
according to his own account, was very irregular. In the year 1788 he 
was sent to college in New York, but returned to Virginia in 1790. In 
the same year he went to Philadelphia to study law in the office of Edmund 
Randolph, then Attorney-General of the United States. But his law 
studies scarcely extended beyond the first book of Blackstone. He became 
of age in June, 1794, up to which time he appears to have led an irregu- 
lar, desultory life, with a residence as fluctuating as his object of pursuit 
was undecided. Randolph made his first appearance in public life in 
1799, as a candidate for Congress, and was elected. He was indebted to 
his eloquence for success in this early contest, as he was without family 
influence in the district, and was a mere boy in appearance. Plis oppo- 
nent was the veteran statesman and famous orator, Patrick Henry. The 
exciting questions which arose out of Mr. Madison's resolutions of 1798 
were the chief matter in debate during the canvass. 

An anecdote has been preserved strongly characteristic of both combat- 
ants. Randolph was addressing the populace in answer to Mr. Henry, 
when a companion said to the latter, " Come, Henry, let us go ; it is not 
worth while to listen to that boy." " Stay, my friend," replied the saga- 
patriot, " there is an old man's head on that boy's shoulders." 



CAMPAIGN OF 1808. 49 

When he entered Congress his youthful aspect, among other striking 
traits, attracted universal surprise. When he presented himself at the 
clerk's table to qualify, the official demanded his age. " Ask my constit- 
uents," was the characteristic reply. Mr. Randolph soon became a 
marked man in the national councils. His fearless thought, pungent lan- 
guage, withering sarcasm, and general power as a prompt and passionate 
debater attracted the Administration as well as excited the dread of all par- 
ties within Congress and without. A pen picture at one time described his 
person as follows : " John Randolph is about six feet high. He has ele- 
vated shoulders, a small head, and a physiognomy, all the parts of which 
are entirely unintellectual except his eye. His hair is dark, thin, and lank, 
and lays close to his head. His voice is as shrill as a fife, but its clear, 
shrieking tones can be distinctly heard by a large audience. The muscles 
and skin about his face are shrivelled and cadaverous, like wrinkled parch- 
ment. His lips are thin, compressed, and colorless. Tall as he looks, his 
weight is not more than one hundred and thirty pounds. " Of the new 
Constitution of Virginia, he said : " It was brought into life with the sar- 
donic grin of death upon its countenance." In that expression the outline 
and tone of his own portrait may be traced. His language was pointed 
and severe, full of condensed fire and inhuman energy. His oratory was 
Spartan brevity and force ; his words fell like vipers among his hearers, and 
stung them into fiery excitement. He was morbid and morose to excess, 
but his gloom was volcanic heat, ready to explode at any moment and in 
any direction. Suddenly his stoical nature would become irrepressible, 
and his cold, sinister eye blazed with splendid fires, and radiated from his 
hueless face like a wintry sky flashing with electric bolts. 

A political opponent boasted on the stump that if his mind was not 
naturally as strong as that of the orator of Roanoke, he had done his best, 
by an arduous collegiate course, to improve it. " Not the first weak soil, 
gentlemen," exclaimed Randolph, interrupting him, " that excessive culti- 
vation has reduced to barrenness. ' ' 

John Randolph at one time was regarded, and perhaps still is by some 
persons, as the prince of American orators. Viewing his merits in the light 
of his public deeds, we think that if an apotheosis is to be granted him at 
all, it should be in company with such men as Warren Hastings. 



50 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



PRESIDENT MADISON'S FIRST CABINET. 

Secretaries of State. — Robert Smith, of Maryland, appointed March 6th, 
1809 ; James Monroe, of Virginia, appointed April 2d, 181 1. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — Albert Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, continued. 

Secretaries of War. — William Eustis, of Massachusetts, appointed March 
7th, 1809 ; John Armstrong, of New York, appointed January 13th, 1S13. 

Secretaries of the Navy. — Paul Hamilton, of South Carolina, appointed 
March 7th, 1809 ; William Jones, of Pennsylvania, appointed January 
12th, 1813. 

Attorneys- General. — Csesar A. Rodney, of Delaware, continued ; William 
Pinkney, of Maryland, appointed December nth, 181 1. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1812. 

REGULAR REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
James Madison of Virginia. 

For Vice-President. 
Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. - 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES, SUPPORTED BY THE FEDERAL PARTY. 

For President. 
De Witt Clinton of New York. 

For Vice-President. 
Jared Ingersoll of Pennsylvania. 

CAUCUSES AND NOMINATIONS. 

In 181 2 the Republican party, which was then in power, was divided on 
the question of war with England. The leaders of the war element were 
Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. 

Madison's known sympathy was with the opposition ; but these leaders 
refused him that support which he knew was necessary to secure a second 
term, unless he identified himself with the war element. He yielded to 
their persuasion, and was nominated for re-election at a Republican Con- 
gressional caucus, held at Washington on the 8th of May. 

De Witt Clinton, a prominent candidate before the Washington caucus, 
returned to New York with his disappointment, and the Republican mem- 
bers of the Legislature gratified him with a nomination for the Presidency 
on the 1 7th of August. 



52 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

The Federalists made no nominations, and indirectly gave their support 
to Clinton and Ingersoll. 

The electoral votes were counted on the 8th day of February, 1813, and 
were found to be, for President, one hundred and twenty-eight for Madison 
and eighty-nine for Clinton ; for Vice-President, Gerry one hundred and 
thirty-one and eighty-six for Ingersoll. Madison and Gerry were there- 
fore declared elected. 



HENRY CLAY. 

Henry Clay, the great statesman and orator, was born on the 12th of 
April, 1777, in Hanover County, Virginia, not far from the birthplace and 
home of Patrick Henry. 

At the age of fifteen Mr. Clay entered the office of the clerk of the High 
Court of Chancery. Four years later he commenced the study of law, and 
was admitted to practice when he had attained his twentieth year. 

In November, 1797, he removed to Lexington, Kentucky, where he 
established himself in the profession of the law. In a speech made at his 
home, June 9th, 1842, he said of his early experience : " In looking back 
upon my origin and progress through life, I have great reason to be thank- 
ful. My father died in 1781, leaving me an infant of too tender years to 
retain any recollection of his smiles or endearments. My surviving parent 
removed to this State in 1792, leaving me, a boy of fifteen years of age, in 
the office of the High Court of Chancery, in the City of Richmond, with- 
out guardian, without pecuniary support, to steer my course as I might or 
could. A neglected education was improved by my own irregular exer- 
tions, without the benefit of systematic instruction. I studied law princi- 
pally in the office of a lamented friend, the late Governor Brooke, then 
Attorney-General of Virginia, and also under the auspices of the venerable 
and lamented Chancellor Wythe, for whom I had acted as an amanuensis. 
I obtained a license to practise the profession from the judges of the Court 
of Appeals, of Virginia, and established myself in Lexington in 1797, 
without patrons, without the favor or countenance of the great or opulent, 
without the means of paying my weekly board, and in the midst of a bar 
uncommonly distinguished by eminent members. I remember how com- 
fortable I thought I should be if I could make ,£100 Virginia money per 



CAMPAIGN OF l8l2. 53 

year, and with what delight I received the first fifteen-shilling fee. My 
hopes were more than realized. I immediately rushed into a successful 
and lucrative practice." 

In 1S03 Mr. Clay was elected to the Legislature ; in 1S06 he was chosen 
to the Senate of the United States to fill a vacancy. After the expiration of 
his term in the Senate he was re-elected to the State Legislature and 
chosen Speaker of that body, which office he held until 1809, when he was 
again elected to the Senate of the United States to fill another vacancy. 
From the first he took a prominent part in the discussion of the leading 
questions before Congress, and came forward as an ardent advocate of 
internal improvement, of domestic manufactures, and of a protective 
policy. The eloquent defence of such public measures has given the 
orator of Ashland a distinction second to no American statesman. 

When his Senatorial term again expired, Mr. Clay was immediatelv 
elected to the House of Representatives, and took his seat on the 4th of 
November, 181 1. On the first day of the session he was chosen Speaker 
by a triumphant vote — an honor which had never before been conferred 
upon a new member. This station he held, with the exception of two 
short intervals, until 1825. 

Mr. Clay entered Congress just before the last conflict with Great Britain. 
That nation had committed a long series of outrages on our Government 
by harassing our commerce, searching our vessels, and impressing our 
seamen. Such injuries could be no longer endured by Americans, and 
war was declared against Great Britain, June 1 8th, 181 2. Mr. Clay urged 
this declaration with " almost as much vehemence and pertinacity as Cato 
the destruction of Carthage. ' ' 

When the war had commenced, Mr. Clay exerted all his burning elo- 
quence for its vigorous prosecution. In one of the most powerful speeches 
he ever made — that " On the New Army Bill," delivered in the House 
January 8th, 1813 — he said, with the enthusiasm of a patriot and with the 
eloquence of Demosthenes : " My plan would be to call out the ample 
resources of the country, give them a judicious direction, prosecute the war 
with the utmost vigor, strike wherever we can reach the enemv, at sea or 
on land, and negotiate the terms of a peace at Quebec or at Halifax. We 
are told that England is a proud and lofty nation, which, disdaining to 
wait for danger, meets it half way. Haughty as she is, we once triumphed 
over her ; and, if we do not listen to the counsels of timidity and despair, 
we shall again prevail. In such a cause, with the aid of Providence, we 



54 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

must corne out crowned with success ; but if we fail, let us fail like men — 
lash ourselves to our gallant tars, and expire together in one common 
struggle, fighting for Free Trade and Seamen's Rights /" 

Mr. Clay was one of the most influential, popular, and eloquent speakers 
ever chosen by the House of Representatives. He presided over the delib- 
erations of that body with great ability and sagacity. "Undoubtedly," 
says a writer, " at this time, even in his youthful age, he had no rival in 
popularity. His name was everywhere familiar as ' household words.' " 

At the commencement of the year 1S14, Mr. Clay was appointed one of 
the commissioners to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain ; and 
on the 19th of January he resigned his station as Speaker of the House in 
a very impressive address. Mr. Clay took a leading part in the negotia- 
tions of the Treaty of Ghent. Before his return home he visited several 
portions of Europe, and was received everywhere with marked attention. 
On his return to the United States he was greeted with the greatest enthu- 
siasm, and unanimously re-elected to Congress. On taking his seat, in 
December, 181 5, he was again triumphantly chosen Speaker of the House. 
His popularity in the country had reached a lofty height. Peace with 
Great Britain had been satisfactorily arranged, and largely through his in- 
strumentality ; and the multitude lavished upon him every expression of 
grateful feeling and personal devotion. He was properly associated in their 
minds with the national glory and national prosperity. 

In 1825 Mr. Clay was appointed Secretary of State by President John 
Quincy Adams. This office he relinquished at the close of Mr. Adams's 
administration, and after remaining two years in retirement, he was elected 
to the United States Senate in 183 1. 

It would exceed our narrow limits to follow Mr. Clay through his brill- 
iant Senatorial career. The distinguished services which he rendered his 
country in that body will ever emblazon the pages of the nation's history 
with a radiance which the brightest effulgence of his gifted contemporaries 
cannot dim. On the 31st of March, 1842, Mr. Clay resigned his seat in 
the Senate. When it was known that he was to deliver his farewell address, 
a large audience filled the Senate Chamber. 

It was an interesting ami solemn occasion. Mr. Clay addressed the 
Senate in a. most affecting speech, from which the following beautiful ex- 
tracts are taken : 

" Pull of attraction, however, as a seat in the Senate is, sufficient as it is 
atisfy the aspirations of the most ambitious heart, 1 have long deter- 



CAMPAIGN OF l8l2. 55 

mined to relinquish it, and to seek that repose which can be enjoyed only 
in the shades of private life, in the circle of one's own family, and in the 
tranquil enjoyments included in one enchanting word — home." 

He paid the following glowing tribute to the State of Kentucky : " But 
scarce had I set my foot upon her generous soil when 1 was embraced with 
parental fondness, caressed as though I had been a favorite child, and pat- 
ronized with liberal and unbounded munificence. From that period the 
highest honors of the State have been freely bestowed upon me ; and when 
in the darkest hour of calumny and detraction I seemed to be assailed by 
all the rest of the world, she interposed her broad and impenetrable shield, 
repelled the poisonous shafts that were aimed for my destruction, and 
vindicated my good name from every malignant and unfounded aspersion. 
I return with indescribable pleasure to linger a while longer and mingle 
with the warm-hearted and whole-souled people of that State ; and when 
the last scene shall forever close upon me, I hope my earthly remains will 
be laid under her green sod with those of her gallant and patriotic sons." 

L eaving the Senate, Mr. Clay retired to private life. In 1844 he was the 
Whig candidate for the Presidency, but was defeated by the election of 
James K. Polk. In December, 1848, Mr. Clay was again elected to the 
United States Senate by a unanimous vote. He died at his post of duty, in 
the city of Washington, on the 29th of June, 1S52, in the seventy-sixth 
year of his age, lamented by an admiring nation. 



PRESIDENT MADISON'S SECOND CABINET. 

Secretary of Slate. — Tames Monroe, of Virginia, continued. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. — Albert Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, continued ; 
George W. Campbell, of Tennessee, appointed February 9th, 18 14 ; Alex- 
ander I. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, appointed October 6th, 18 14. 

Secretaries of War. — John Armstrong, of New York, continued ; James 
Monroe, of Virginia, appointed September 26th, 1S14 ; William H. Craw- 
ford, of Georgia, appointed March 3d, 18 15. 

Secretaries of the Navy. — William Jones, of Pennsylvania, continued ; 
Benjamin W. Crowninshield, of Massachusetts, appointed December 19th, 
1814. 

Attorneys-General. — William Pinkney, of Maryland, continued ; Rich- 
ard Rush, of Pennsylvania, appointed February 10th, 1 8 14. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
CAMPAIGN OF i 8 i 6. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
James Monroe of Virginia. 

For Vice-President. 
Daniel D. Tompkins of New York. 

FEDERAL NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Rufus King of New York. 

For Vice-President. 
John E. Howard of Maryland. 

CAUCUSES AND NOMINATIONS. 

The objections which had repeatedly been made against the caucus 
system of Presidential nominations broke out with renewed vigor in a 
caucus held at Philadelphia on the 16th of March, and two unsuccessful 
attempts were made to pass a resolution declaring it inexpedient to make 
caucus nominations by members of Congress. The practice had previously 
caused much dissatisfaction, and at this meeting nineteen of the Congress- 
men refused to take part in the proceedings. 

Monroe and Tompkins, however, were nominated for the offices of 
President and Vice-President by a vote which was declared unanimous. 

At the same time the objection to what was called the " Virginia 
Dynasty" was renewed, and the overdrafts made on that State for national 
rulers was criticised by all classes who were imbued with State pride. 



CAMPAIGN OF l8l6. 57 

The Federal party nominated Rufus King and John E. Howard. They 
were joined by the Clintonians, who repudiated caucus nominations ; but 
this coalition developed little strength, and the Monroe ticket was elected 
by one hundred and eighty-three electoral votes against thirty-four for 
Kiner. 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. 

Martin Van Buren, one of the most sagacious of American politicians, 
was born at Kinderhook, New York, on the 5th of December, 1782. He 
began the study of law at the age of fourteen, and passed the last year of 
his studies in the office of Hon. W. P. Van Ness, in the city of New York. 
At the age of eighteen he was a delegate in a nominating convention of the 
Republican party. In 1808 he was appointed surrogate of Columbia 
County, and in 18 12 he was elected to the State Senate, and in that body 
voted for electors pledged to support De Witt Clinton for the Presidency. 
In 1 8 1 5 he was elected attorney-general of the State, which office he held 
until 1 81 9. In 1816 he was again a member of the Senate, holding the 
two offices together. 

In 181 8 Mr. Van Buren set on foot a new organization of the Demo- 
cratic party in his State, and became the ruling spirit of a coterie of able 
politicians, known as the Albany regency, among whom B. F. Butler and 
\V. L. Marcy were prominent, who held the political control of the State 
uninterruptedly for more than twenty years. In 182 1 Mr. Van Buren was 
elected to a seat in the United States Senate, and was also elected a member 
of the convention to revise the State Constitution. 

In the latter body he advocated an extension of the elective franchise, 
but opposed universal suffrage. He voted against depriving colored citi- 
zens of the franchise, but supported the proposal to require of them a free- 
hold qualification of two hundred and fifty dollars. In 1827 he was re- 
-elected to the Senate, but resigned that office on being elected Governor of 
New York in 1828. As governor he proposed the safety fund banking 
system adopted by the Legislature in 1S29. In March, 1829, he was 
invited to a seat in President Jackson's Cabinet and given the office of 
Secretary of State, which office he resigned on April 7th, 1S31. He was 
subsequently appointed Minister t • England, and reached that country in 



58 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

September ; but his nomination to that office, submitted to the Senate in 
December, was rejected on the ground that while Secretary of State he had 
instructed the United States Minister to England to beg from that country, 
as a favor, certain concessions in regard to trade with her colonies in the 
West Indies, which he should have demanded as a right ; and that he had 
carried our domestic party contests and their results into foreign diplomatic 
negotiations. The friends and admirers of Mr. Van Buren, to recompense 
him for his humiliating trip to England, nominated him, on the 2 2d of 
May, 1832, for the Vice-Presidency, on the ticket with General Jackson for 
re-election to the Presidency ; and in the subsequent election Mr. Van 
Buren again came into office. The Democratic National Convention, which 
met at Baltimore on the 20th of May, 1835, unanimously nominated him 
for President. The election in November, 1836, gave him a large majority 
over his competitors, General Harrison and Daniel Webster. 

The country, which for some time had felt a pecuniary embarrassment, 
after his inauguration, on the 4th of March, 1837, became involved in a 
crisis of unprecedented severity. Commerce and manufactures were pros- 
trate ; hundreds of wealthy mercantile houses in every section were bank- 
rupt ; imposing public meetings attributed these disasters to the policy of 
the Government, and two months after Mr. Van Buren' s inauguration the 
crash was consummated by the universal suspension of specie payments by 
the banks. On the 15th of May he summoned an extraordinary session of 
Congress to meet the following September. Mr. Van Buren, in his special 
message, advised that a bankrupt law for banking and other corporations 
should be enacted, and that the approaching deficit in the treasury be 
made good by withholding from the States the fourth and last instalment 
of a previous large surplus ordered to be deposited with Uiem by the act of 
June, 1S36, and by the temporary issue of six million dollars of treasury 
notes. 

An insurrectionary movement begun in Canada, in the latter part of 1S37, 
having found aid and svmpathy within our borders, Mr. Van Buren issued 
two proclamations, enjoining all citizens to refrain from violating the laws 
and the treaties of the country, and he sent General Scott to preserve the 
peace there. It was during Mr. Van Buren' s administration that the agita- 
tion of die slavery question was temporarily stopped in the House of Rep- 
resentatives. Mr. Slade, of Vermont, introduced the subject in a long and 
irate anti-slavery speech, whereupon the Southern members withdrew 
eparate deliberation, and Mr. Rhett, of South Carolina, proposed to 




Frederick Douglass. 



CAMPAIGN OF l8l6. 61 

declare that it was expedient that the Union should be dissolved ; but on 
motion of Mr. Patten, of Virginia, it was determined by the House that for 
the future all petitions or other papers touching slavery should be laid on 
the table without being debated, printed, read, or referred. For this resolu- 
tion the friends of Mr. Van Buren unanimously voted. 

Mr. Van Buren's third annual message, in December, 1839, was largely 
occupied with financial discussions, and especially with the argument for 
the divorce of the Government from the banks, and for the exclusive 
" receipt and payment of gold and silver in all public transactions " This 
measure, by which his administration is especially distinguished, became a 
law in 1 840. The canvass preliminary to the Presidential election of 1 840 
was begun unusually early and with unwonted energy by the opposition. 
Mr. Van Buren was nominated for re-election at the Democratic National 
Convention held on the 5th of May, 1840. General Harrison was the 
Whig nominee. Never in the political history of the United States was a 
canvass conducted amid such absorbing public excitement, and never was a 
man more maligned or better abused than Martin Van Buren. The finan- 
cial distress which had existed more or less oppressively during his adminis- 
tration was a standing text for the opposition journals and for the orators 
who assailed him at monster meetings in every part of the country. 
Charges of corruption, of extravagance, of indifference to the welfare of the 
laboring classes were brought against him in the most extravagant manner, 
while the enthusiasm of the supporters of General Harrison was inflamed 
by log cabins, emblematic of his popular origin and habits, by songs, by 
processions, by assemblages counting tens and hundreds of thousands. 

In 1844 Mr. Van Buren's friends once more urged his nomination for 
the Presidency by the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, but 
he was defeated then on account of his opposition to the annexation of 
Texas to the Union. 

In 1848, when the Democrats had nominated Lewis Cass, and avowed 
their readiness to tolerate slavery in the new Territories lately acquired from 
Mexico, Mr. Van Buren and his adherents, adopting the name of the Free 
Democracy, at once began to discuss in public that new aspect of the slavery 
question. They held a convention at Utica on the 2 2d of June, which 
nominated Mr. Van Buren for President and Henry Dodge, of Wisconsin, 
for Vice-President. Mr. Dodge declined the nomination, and at a great 
convention held at Buffalo, on the 9th of August, Charles Francis Adams 
was substituted. The convention declared that " Congress had no more 



62 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

power to make a slave than to make a king." In accepting the nomina- 
tion of this new party, Mr. Van Buren declared his full assent to its anti- 
slavery principles. In this contest Mr. Van Buren was defeated, and retired 
to private life on his estate at Kinderhook, where he died, July 24th, 1862. 
As a speaker, without any pretension to eloquence, Mr. Van Buren was 
logical and forcible, with a persuasiveness which even few of his gifted con- 
temporaries could equal. 



"PRESIDENT MONROE'S FIRST CABINET. 

Secretary of State. — John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, appointed 
March 5th, 181 7. 

Secretaries of the Treasury.' — Albert Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, continued ; 
William H. Crawford, of Georgia, appointed October 2 2d, 1S17. 

Secretaries of War. — William H. Crawford, of Georgia, continued ; 
John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, appointed December 15th. 18 17. 

Secretaries of the Navy. — Benjamin W. Crowninshield, of Massachusetts, 
continued ; Smith Thompson, of New York, appointed November 9th, 
1-818. 

Attorneys-General. — Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, continued ; William 
Wirt, of Virginia, appointed December 15th, 181 7. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1820. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
James Monroe of Virginia. 

For J lee-President. 
Daniel D. Tompkins of New York. 

FEDERAL NOMINEES FOR WHOM ELECTORAL VOTES WERE CAST. 

For President. 
John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts. 

For Vice-President. 
Richard Stockton of New Jersey. 

caucuses and nominations. 

In 1820 it was a foregone conclusion that Monroe and Tompkins were 
to be re-elected. 

A call for a Republican nominating caucus was published early in April 
of that year, and in one week thereafter some fifty Republicans assembled 
in the House of Representatives ; but owing to the limited attendance and 
the pronounced opposition to caucuses, the assembly disbanded. 

The Federal party, at this time, was so dismembered, it presented no 
ticket. 

Mr. Monroe received all the electoral votes but one, which was cast for 
John Quincy Adams. 

Mr. Tompkins received all the electoral votes for Vice-President but 



64 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

fourteen. These were divided between Richard Stockton, Daniel Rodney, 
and Richard Rush. 

Monroe's eight years of administration is known as the " Era of Good 
Feeling. " 



JOHN C. CALHOUN. 

John C. Calhoun was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, on the 
1 8th of March, 1782. His father, Patrick Calhoun, was a native of Ire- 
land, but emigrated with his parents to Pennsylvania in 1733. From 
thence the family removed to the west of Virginia ; but being driven away 
by the Indians after the defeat of Braddock, they settled in South Carolina, 
on the borders of the Cherokee territory. 

At the age of twenty young Calhoun was sent to Yale College, where he 
was graduated in 1804. He then entered the law school at Litchfield, 
Conn., and having completed his studies returned home, and was 
admitted to the bar in South Carolina. His great abilities as a public 
speaker immediately gave him prominence, and in 1S0S he was chosen to 
the Legislature, in which he so distinguished himself that, in 181 1, he was 
sent to Congress. From that period until his death he was an active par- 
ticipant in all the great events and questions which attracted public atten- 
tion. After remaining six years in Congress he was appointed Secretary 7 of 
Warliy President Monroe, and in 1825 was elected Vice-President of the 
United States. 

In 183 1 he was elected to a seat in the Senate, which position he held 
until 1843. The following year he was appointed Secretary of State by 
President Tyler, and in 1845 he was again returned to the Senate, of which 
body he continued a member till his death, which occurred at Washington 
on the 31st of March, 1850. 

Shortly after the commencement of President's Monroe's second term, 
in 182 1, the question of the successorship became one of leading interest. 
Calhoun's name was mentioned among others. He was regarded as a 
statesman of broad views, above mere local or narrow party influences. 
W. II. Crawford was also a candidate for the Presidency ; but the military 
exploits of General Jackson made such an impression on the popular mind 
that the friends of Calhoun judged it expedient for them to withdraw his 



CAMPAIGN OF 1820. 65 

name and support Jackson instead. Thereupon Calhoun contented him- 
self with running for the Vice-Presidency. 

In 1S44 Mr. Calhoun was again brought forward by his friends as a can- 
didate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency ; but instructions 
having been given to a majority of the delegates to the approaching nomi- 
nating convention to vote for Mr. Van Buren, Calhoun, in February, ad- 
dressed a letter to his political friends, severely Criticising the principles 
on which the convention was to be constituted, and refusing to allow his 
name to be used. 

As a public speaker Calhoun occupied the foremost rank among the 
great orators of any time or country. His diction was remarkable for the 
absence of ornament and metaphor, and for its clear, terse and logical com- 
pactness. Avoiding all discursiveness of the imagination, his speeches are 
characterized by a salient pressure to the point and a fiery vehemence of 
dogmatic argumentation unbroken in its flow. In earnestness he was 
never surpassed by even a religious devotee. 

The following is in part Mr. Webster's estimate of him, delivered in the 
Senate when his death was announced : " The eloquence of Mr. Calhoun 
was a part of his intellectual character. It grew out of the qualities of his 
mind. It was plain, strong, wise, condensed, concise ; sometimes impas- 
sioned, still always severe. Rejecting ornament, not often seeking illustra- 
tion, his power consisted in the plainness of his propositions, in the close- 
ness of his logic, and in the earnestness and energy of his manner. No 
man was more respectful to others ; no man carried himself with greater 
decorum ; no man with superior dignity. I have not in public nor in pri- 
vate life known a more assiduous person in the discharge of his duty. His 
colloquial talents were singular and eminent. He had the basis — the indis- 
putable basis — of all high character, unspotted integrity, and honor unim- 
peached. Firm in his purposes, patriotic and honest as I am sure he was 
in the principles he espoused and in the measures he defended, I do not 
believe that, aside from his large regard for that species of distinction that 
conducted him to eminent stations for the benefit of the Republic, he had 
a selfish motive or a selfish feelins;. " 



66 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



PRESIDENT MONROE'S SECOND CABINET. 

Secretary of State. — John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, continued. 
Secretary of the Treasury. — William H. Crawford, of Georgia, continued. 
Secretary of War. —John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, continued. 
Secretaries of the Navy. — Smith Thompson, of New York, continued; 
Samuel L. Southard, of New Jersey, appointed September 16th, 1823. 
Attorney- General. — William Wirt, of Virginia, continued. 



CHAPTER X. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1824. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts. 
General Andrew Jackson of North Carolina. 
Henry Clay of Kentucky. 
William H. Crawford of Georgia. 

conventions and nominations. 

General Jackson, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Clay were nominated by the 
Legislatures of their respective States, and these nominations were indorsed 
by the Legislatures of various other States according to preferences. 

Mr. Crawford was a caucus candidate. That system of nomination was 
in such disrepute, the Republicans would not support any man nomi- 
nated in that way. 

The canvass which followed these nominations was exciting in the high- 
est degree. The candidates were all Republicans. The issues were local 
and personal, and the contest of these great leaders bore the opprobrium of 
the ' ' scrub race. ' ' 

The election in November gave no candidate a majority of electors, and 
it devolved upon the House of Representatives to choose a President from 
the three highest on the list — Jackson, Adams, and Crawford. Clay, stand- 
ing fourth on the list, was not eligible ; but he gave his support to Adams, 
and the latter was elected by the votes of thirteen States. Seven States 
voted for Jackson and four for Crawford. 

In the electoral college Jackson received 99 votes ; Adams, 84 ; Craw- 
ford, 41 ; and Clay, 37. For Vice-President, John C. Calhoun received 



68 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

182 electoral votes, and was elected to that office. Nathan Sanford received 
30 electoral votes ; Nathaniel Macon, 24 ; Andrew Jackson, 13 ; Martin 
Van Buren, 9 ; and Henry Clay, 2. 

The popular vote was as follows : Jackson, 155,872; Adams, 105,321 ; 
Crawford, 44,282 ; Clay, 46,587. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 

Daniel Webster, the profound statesman and great orator, was born in 
the town of Salisbury, New Hampshire, on the rSth of January, 1782. In 
a speech delivered at Saratoga, in 1840, Mr. Webster said of his birth- 
place : " It did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin ; but my elder 
brothers and sisters were, which was raised amid the snow-drifts of New 
Hampshire at a period so early that, when the smoke first rose from its 
rude chimney and curled over the frozen hills, there was no similar evi- 
dence of a white man's habitation between it and the settlements on the 
rivers of Canada. " 

Amid the rugged, majestic scenery of the old Granite State Daniel Web- 
ster was reared, and there it was his youthful mind was impressed with 
scenes of grandeur and sublimity, which doubtless had a potent influence 
over the developments of his high moral and intellectual character, and so 
it was thought, years afterward, on a day memorable in Senatorial annals, 
when Mr. Webster pronounced "sentences of powerful thought, towering 
in accumulative grandeur, one above the other, as if he strove. Titan-like, 
to reach the very heavens themselves." 

In 1796 young Webster was sent to Phillips Exeter Academy, and here 
the future statesman was first called upon to speak in public ; and it surely 
affords some encouragement to the diffident young student who is just 
commencing an oratorical career, to learn that Daniel Webster " evinced 
in his boyhood the strongest antipathy to public declamation — that in his 
first effort he became embarrassed, and even burst into tears." 

Mr. Webster speaks of his earliest oratorical efforts at this school as fol- 
lows : " I believe I made tolerable progress in most branches which I 
attended to ; but there was one thing I could not do. I could not make 
a declamation. I could not speak before the school. The kind and 
excellent Buckminster sought especially to persuade me to perform the 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 824. 69 

exercise of declamation like other boys, but I could not do it. Many a 
piece did I commit to memory, and recite and rehearse in my own room, 
over and over again ; yet when the day came when the school collected to 
hear declamations, when my name was called and I saw all eyes turned to 
my seat, I could not raise myself from it. Sometimes the instructors 
frowned ; sometimes they smiled. Mr. Buckminster always pressed and 
entreated, most willingly, that I would venture. But I never could com- 
mand sufficient resolution." 

In 1797 he entered Dartmouth College, where he partly supported him- 
self and aided his elder brother, Ezekiel, to prepare for college by teaching 
school in winter. He graduated in 1801, and immediately entered the law 
office of Thomas \V. Thompson, his father's next-door neighbor, who was 
afterward a United States Senator. In 1804 Mr. Webster went to Boston 
and entered the office of Christopher Gore to complete his legal studies. 
In 1805 he was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice at Boscawen, 
New Hampshire. In 1806 he removed to Portsmouth, then the capital of 
the State. Here he made rapid progress, and was soon recognized as the 
leader at a bar composed of eminent counsel. 

Mr. Webster came forward in life at a time when party spirit ran high. 
He had inherited from his father the principles of the Federal party, and 
advocated them in speeches and resolutions on public occasions, but did 
not for some years embark deeply in politics. The declaration of war in 
181 2, long foreseen and deprecated by the Federalists, created a demand 
or the best talent the country could furnish. Mr. Webster had already 
established a commanding reputation, and in 18 12 he was elected a repre- 
sentative in Congress from the Portsmouth district as a Peace advocate, and 
in the organization of the House was placed on the Committee of Foreign 
Affairs. Early in the session he delivered his first speech to that body, and 
so great was its effect that he immediately took rank with the first debaters 
in Congress. He was re-elected in 18 14. 

In 1 8 16 Mr. Webster removed to Boston. For nearly seven years after 
his removal, with a single exception, he filled no public office, but devoted 
himself exclusively to the practice of his profession, taking a position as a 
counsellor and an advocate above which no one has ever risen in this 
country. 

In 1820 Mr. Webster was a member of the Massachusetts Convention to 
revise the Constitution of that State after the separation of Maine. During 
its session he pronounced, on December 2 2d, 1820, his celebrated dis- 



~0 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

course at Plymouth on the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrim 
Fathers. This was the first of a series of performances, apart from the 
efforts of the Senate and the bar, by which he placed himself at the head 
of American orators. In the autumn of 1822 he was elected to Congress 
by a very large majority, and in 1824 was re-elected, receiving in seven 
wards of Boston 1986 votes, against one vote for Mr. Putnam. In 1827 
he was elected to the Senate of the United States to fill a vacancy, and 
retained his seat by re-election till 1841. 

In 1840 Mr. Webster was instrumental, more than any other leader, in 
bringing about the political change which was consummated in the election 
of General Harrison. During this spirited canvass Webster's voice was 
heard in the principal cities of the East in eloquent advocacy of the Harri- 
son ticket. During this campaign, a good, pious acquaintance of Mr. 
Webster, who resided in New Hampshire, was suggested for State Senator. 
When he saw it announced that Mr. Webster was to speak in Faneuil 
Hall, he repaired to Boston to consult his distinguished friend and get his 
views on the propriety of his running for office. When he had acquainted 
the great statesman with the situation, Mr. Webster said : " I have too 
much respect for you to advise you to run for office. If you become a 
candidate the Democrats will say everything bad about you and try to de- 
fame your character. Why, they might even accuse you of stealing 
horses. ' ' This was hardly the advice which the man, whose vanity had 
been flattered by the mention of his name in connection with a State Sena- 
torship, hoped to receive, yet he recognized its soundness ; but his secret 
ambition and the entreaties of other friends overcame his judgment, and he 
entered into the contest. Meeting Mr. Webster in Boston after the elec- 
tion, the Massachusetts statesman asked his New Hampshire friend how the 
election went with him. " Well, Mr. Webster," he said, " you know you 
told me if I ran for office the Democrats would say everything bad about 
me. They did ; and, as you predicted, they even accused me of stealing 
horses, and they almost proved it, too, and that's what beat me. " 

General Harrison, as soon as it was ascertained that he was elected, 
offered to Mr. Webster the choice of places in his cabinet. In 1844 he 
supported Mr. Clay's nomination for the Presidency, and in 1845 was again 
elected to the Senate, taking his seat as the successor of Rufus Choate. In 
[848 Mr. Webster's friends had calculated, with some confidence, that the 
Whig nomination for President would fall upon him ; but General Taylor 
was made the nominee, and Mr. Webster advocated his election in speeches 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 824. 71 

all through the Eastern and Middle States. In 1850 Mr. Webster resigned 
his seat in the Senate, having been appointed Secretary of State by President 
Fillmore, which office he held until his death, at Marshfield, on the 24th of 
October, 1852. In the spring of 1852 Mr. Webster's friends entertained 
sanguine hopes that he would receive the Whig nomination for President ; 
but the choice of the convention held at Baltimore fell to General Scott. 

The great speech of Mr. Webster, in reply to Colonel Hayne, is regarded 
as the ablest of his productions, and may be pronounced, said Mr. Everett, 
the most celebrated speech ever delivered in Congress. In many respects 
it was the greatest oratorical effort ever made by any statesman in ancient 
or modern times. In that marvellous speech Mr. Webster repelled the 
attacks of Colonel Hayne on the Old Bay State as follows : " Mr. Presi- 
dent, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts. There she is — 
behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history ; the world 
knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston, and 
Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill — and there they will remain 
forever. The bones of her sons, falling in the great struggle for indepen- 
dence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State, from New England to 
Georgia ; and there they will lie forever. And, sir, where American Liberty 
raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there 
it still lives, in the strength of its manhood and full of its original spirit. 
If discord and disunion shall wound it — if party strife and blind ambition 
shall hawk and tear it — if folly and madness — if uneasiness, under salutary 
and necessary restraint, shall succeed to separate it from that Union, by 
which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand, in the end, by the side 
of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked ; it will stretch forth its arm, 
with whatever of vigor it may still retain, over the friends who gather 
around it, and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amid the proudest monu- 
ments of its own glory and on the very spot of its origin. " 

At the grand ceremonial of the laying oi the corner-stone of the addition 
to the Capitol, on the 4th of July, 185 1, Mr. Webster delivered the last of 
his most eloquent addresses. It was one of the noblest of his oratorical 
efforts — a magnificent burst of the highest eloquence. 



72 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



THOMAS EWING. 

Thomas Ewing was born in Ohio County, Virginia, December 28th, 
1789, and died at Lancaster, Ohio, October 26th, 1S71 . The poverty of 
his early life and his successful overcomings of environments is but an ad- 
ditional unit in the large column of'Amercian individual successes. 

In his twentieth year he left home and worked in the Kanawha salt estab- 
lishments until he had laid up money enough to pay for the farm which 
his father had purchased in 1792, in what is now Athens County, Ohio, 
and enabled himself to enter the Ohio University at Athens, where he grad- 
uated in 181 5. 

He studied law in Lancaster, Ohio, was admitted to the bar in 1S16, 
and practised with great success in the State courts and the Supreme Court 
of the United States. 

In March, 1831, he took his seat in the United States Senate. He 
spoke against confirming the nomination of Van Buren as Minister to 
Great Britain, supported the protective tariff system of Clay, and advocated 
a reduction of the rates of postage, a recharter of the United States Bank, 
and the Revenue Collection bill, known as the " Force bill." In 1834 and 
again in 1835, as a member of the Committee on Post-Offices and Post 
Roads, he presented a majority report on abuses in the post-office, which 
resulted in the reorganization of that department. He opposed the re- 
moval of the deposits from the United States Bank, and on December 21st, 
1835, introduced a bill for the settlement of the Ohio boundary question, 
which was passed March nth and June 15th, 1836. During the same 
session he brought forward a bill, which became a law, for the reorganiza- 
tion of the general land office ; and on several occasions he opposed the 
policy of granting pre-emption rights to settlers on the public lands. He 
spoke against the admission of Michigan, and presented a memorial for the 
abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia, which, 
he insisted, ought to be referred, though he was opposed to granting the 
prayer of the memorialists. 

In July, 1836, the Secretary of the Treasury issued what was known as 
the " specie circular," directing receivers in land offices to accept pay- 
ments only in gold, silver, or treasury certificates, except from certain classes 
of persons, for a limited time. 




George William Curtis. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 824. 75 

In December Mr. Ewing brought in a bill to annul this circular, and 
another declaring it unlawful for the secretary to make such discrimina- 
tion ; but the bills were not carried. 

His term expired in March, 1837, and he resumed the practice of his 
profession. 

In 1 84 1 he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Harri- 
son, and retained that office under President Tyler. His first official report 
proposed the imposition of twenty per cent ad valorem duties on cer- 
tain articles for the relief of the national debt, disapproved the independent 
Treasury Act, passed the preceding year, and urged the establishment of a 
national bank. He was requested to prepare a bill for the last purpose, 
which was passed with some alteration, but was vetoed by the President. 
Mr. Tyler thereupon indicated a plan for a bank of moderate capital for 
the regulation of exchanges, and at his request Mr. Ewing helped to frame 
a charter, which was immediately passed, and, in turn, vetoed. Mr. Ewing, 
with all the other members of the cabinet except Mr. Webster, conse- 
quently resigned in September, 1841. 

On the accession of General Taylor to the Presidency, in 1849, he took 
office as Secretary of the newly-created Department of the Interior, which 
he organized. Among the measures recommended in his first report, 
December 3d, 1849, were the extension of the public land laws to Califor- 
nia, New Mexico, and Oregon, the establishment of a mint near the Cali- 
fornia gold mines, and the construction of a road to the Pacific. 

On the death of Taylor and the accession of Fillmore, in 1850, Mr. 
Corwin became Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. Ewing was appointed 
by the Governor of Ohio to serve during Corwin' s unexpired term in the 
Senate. In this body he refused to vote for the Fugitive Slave bill, op- 
posed Clay's Compromise bill, reported on the Committee from Finance a 
bill for the establishment of a branch mint in California, and advocated a 
reduction of postage, river and harbor appropriations, and the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia. 

In 1 85 1 he retired from public life, and resumed the practice of law at 
Lancaster. 

Among the most elaborate of his written professional arguments are those 

in the cases of Oliver v. Piatt, ct al, involving the title to a large part of 

Toledo, Ohio ; the Methodist Church division : the Mclntire poor school 

ik Zanesville ; and the McMicken will, involving large bequests for educa- 

' tion. 



76 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

He was delegate to the Peace Congress of i860, and was also chosen a 
delegate to the National Union Convention in 1866. 

During the war he gave the Union cause an unflinching support. 

His son-in-law, General William T. Sherman, and his son, General 
Thomas Ewing, Jr., were, as is well known, among the most conspicuous 
of the Union generals. 

During his last years, in consequence of infirmities, he lived in complete 
retirement, yet he preserved to the end a keen interest in the nation's won- 
derful growth and prosperity. ■ 



PRESIDENT ADAMS'S CABINET. 

Secretary of State. —Henry Clay, of Kentucky, appointed March 7th, 
1825. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, appointed 
March 7th, 1825 

Secretaries of War. — James Barbour, of Virginia, appointed March 
7th, 1825 ; Peter B. Potter, of New York, appointed May 26th, 1828. 

Secretary of the Navy. — Samuel L. Southard, of New Jersey, continued. 

Attorney-General. — William Wirt, of Virginia, continued. 



CHAPTER XL 

CAMPAIGN OF 1828. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. 

For I r ice-Presideni, 
John ('. Calhoun of South Carolina. 

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts. 

For Vice-President. 
Richard Risk of Pennsylvania. 

CAl CUSES, CONVENTIONS, AND NOMINATIONS. 

Early in the administration of John Quincy Adams a fierce canvass was 
carried on in the House of Representatives for the succeeding term. The 
Legislature of Tennessee seconded the choice of the friends of General 
Jackson in the House, and nominated him in October, 1825. The 
Assembly of Massachusetts followed the action of the Tennessee Legislature, 
and nominated Mr. Adams for a second term. 

Numerous conventions in the several States followed, and both candi- 
dates were favored. This was at a period when the caucus system was in 
disfavor, and national conventions had not yet come in vogue. 

The electoral count gave Jackson one hundred and seventy-eight votes, 
and John Quincy Adams eighty-three. 



78 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



WILLIAM WIRT. 

William Wirt was born at Bladensburg, near Washington, on the 8th of 
November, 1782. His father died when he was an infant, and his mother 
when he was but eight years old. Like many great men, he was early left 
orphaned of everything but resolution and hope, to battle with worldly 
adversity, and, in the midst of struggles, to build his fortunes. 

After suitable preparatory studies he went to Leesburg, Virginia, and 
when seventeen years old commenced the study of law, and three years 
later was admitted to the bar. 

Young Wirt rose rapidly in his profession, and so eminent had he be- 
come, that he was retained in the Aaron Burr prosecution in 1807, and to 
him, as much as to any of the counsel engaged, belonged the commenda- 
tion of the court that " a degree of eloquence, seldom displayed on any 
occasion, embellished solidity of argument, and depth of research." 

In 18 16 Mr. Madison appointed Mr. Wirt Attorney for Virginia ; and in 
the following year he was appointed Attorney- General of the United States 
by President Monroe. This ofhce he held continuously for eleven years 
and four months. 

In 1826, at the request of the citizens of Washington, he delivered an 
eulogy on Adams and Jefferson. It was regarded one of the most masterly 
productions which that melancholy event occasioned. 

Those who were familiar with the clearness, melody, and flexibility of 
Wirt's voice when at the height of his fame, and his distinct, emphatic, and 
pure pronunciation, were surprised to learn that when he entered on the 
practice of his profession " his utterance was thick — his tongue clumsy and 
apparently too large — his pronunciation of words clipping, and when 
excited by feeling his voice unmanageable, sometimes bursting out in 
loud, harsh, indistinct, and imperfect articulation." All this he overcame 
through persevering and resistless cultivation. All through his life he was 
a passionate and persevering votary of elocution. But over and above the 
mere verbiage of his spoken thought, he gave great attention to gesture, 
which is " the language of the body." ' The hands are the common lan- 
guage of mankind," said Cicero, and another distinguished Roman orator 
was accustomed to declare that " he was never fit to talk till he had ' warmed 
his arm. ' ' There can be no doubt that Wirt's trenius was of the highest 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 828. 79 

order, but he began and continued through his \yhole splendid career 
under the deep conviction that eminent success depended on the most 
assiduous self-cultivation, and his diligent and unremitting discipline may 
claim a share of credit for the brilliant success which he achieved in the 
field of oratory. In 1832 Mr. Wirt was the nominee of the anti-Mason 
party for the Presidency. *He developed the full strength of the party, and 
received seven electoral votes. He died in the city of Washington on the 
iSth of February, 1834. 



PRESIDENT JACKSON'S FIRST CABINET. 

Secretaries of State. — Martin Van Buren, of New York, appointed 
March 6th, 1829 ; Edward Livingston, of Louisiana, appointed May 
24th, 1831. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. — Samuel D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania, ap- 
pointed March 6th, 1829 ; Louis McLane, of Delaware, appointed August 
8th, 1831. 

Secretaries of War. — John H. Eaton, of Tennessee, appointed March 
9th, 1829 ; Lewis Cass, of Michigan, appointed August 1st, 1831. 

Secretaries of the Navy. — John Branch, of North Carolina, appointed 
March 9th, 1829 ; Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, appointed May 
23d, 1831. 

Postmaster-General. — William B. Barry, of Kentucky, appointed March 
9th, 1829. 

Attorneys-General. — John M. Berrien, of Georgia, appointed March 9th. 
1829 ; Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, appointed December 27th, 1831. 



CHAPTER XII. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1832. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. 

For Vice-President. 
Martin Van Buren of New York. 

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Henry Clay of Kentucky. 

For Vice - President. 
John Sergeant of Pennsylvania. 

CONVENTIONS AND NOMINATIONS. 

The first national political convention held in the United States was that 
convened at Philadelphia in September, 1830, by the anti-Masonic party, 
an organization which grew out of the excitement incident to the mysterious 
disappearance of Morgan, a royal arch Mason, in September, 1826. 

The convention passed a resolution to adjourn to the 26th day of Sep- 
tember, 1 83 1, at Baltimore, and make suitable nominations for the offices 
oi President and Vice-President. The Baltimore Convention, which assem- 
bled in pursuance of the foregoing resolution, nominated William Wirt, of 
Maryland, and Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania. 

The National Republicans held a convention at Baltimore on the 12th 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 832. 8 1 

of December, 1S31, and nominated Henry Clay for President and John 
Sergeant for Vice-President, by a unanimous vote. 

The Democratic party, in the same city, at its first national convention, 
presented as its choice General Jackson for President and Martin Van 
Buren for Vice-President. 



EDWARD EVERETT. 

Edward Everett was born in Dorchester, near Boston, April nth, 1794. 
At the age of ten his regular preparation for college was begun, and he was 
sent to a private school kept by Ezekiel Webster, of New Hampshire ; a 
gentleman, says Mr. Everett himself, " of eminent talent and great worth, 
well entitled to be remembered for his own sake, but better known as the 
elder brother of Daniel Webster." On one occasion, during the absence 
of his brother, Daniel Webster took charge of the school for a week. It 
was thus that an acquaintance began which afterward ripened into the 
closest regard. Few things, probably, were less in the thought of either, 
in that schoolhouse, than that the boy, as Governor of Massachusetts, 
would one day sign the commission of his teacher as Senator of the United 
States, or, at a later day, succeed him in the State Department. 

Young Everett entered Harvard College in the summer of 1S07, and 
graduating four years later, entered immediately on the study of divinity. 
In 1 8 13 he was invited and accepted the call to become the pastor of the 
Brattle Square Church, in Boston. In 18 15 he was called by the govern- 
ment of Harvard College to the chair of the Greek professorship. Accept- 
ing their invitation, he made his first visit to Europe to prepare for his new 
duties. Returning to America in 18 19, after a long course of study and 
travel, he entered upon the professorship, which he held until his election 
to Congress, from the Middlesex District, in 1824. 

He took his seat in the House of Representatives in 1825 as a supporter 
of Mr. Adams, and served there for ten years. He was at once appointed 
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. To the foreign relations of the 
country, therefore, he gave especial attention ; but his interest was not 
limited to them. These years were marked by discussions on die most 
important interests in our legislation, and in many of these discussions he 
took a leading place. 






82 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

In 1S35 Mr. Everett was elected Governor of Massachusetts, and held 
that office for the four years following. In 1839 l )e failed of a re-election 
by a single vote, and in 1840 sailed for Europe and passed the winter in 
Italy. General Harrison's election, however, brought his political friends 
into favor, and Mr. Everett was appointed Minister at the Court of 
St. James. The questions relating to the North-eastern boundary, the 
fisheries, the Caroline, the Creole, the case of McLeod, and other matters 
of dispute were then at their most critical stage. 

Mr. Webster's intimate knowledge of the powers and qualifications of 
his friend gave the latter full scope for unfettered action ; and never, it is 
safe to say, was a difficult diplomatic duty discharged with more judgment, 
delicacy, and grace. Returning home in 1846, Mr. Everett was recalled 
to academic life by his Alma Mater, which in that year elected him presi- 
dent, to succeed the venerable Josiah Quincy. Holding this position for 
three years, he resigned it in 1849, an( J f° r some years remained in com- 
parative retirement. At the death of Mr. Webster, in October, 1852, Mr. 
Everett was called by President Fillmore to the Department of State. 
During the few months that he was Secretary of State he had occasion, in 
the matter of the proposed tripartite convention respecting Cuba, to leave 
upon record a memorable token of the reach and vigor of his policy in 
foreign affairs. 

The change of administration, however, withdrew him from office, and 
in 1 85 3 he took his seat in the United States Senate. His health, under 
the pressure of official toil, failed him, and in May, 1854, he resigned his 
seat ; and this event terminated his career in public office in the service of 
the nation, with a single memorable exception. 

The great work which he performed in the next four years, when, with 
infirm bodily powers, he labored incessantly for the Mount Vernon Fund, 
will command admiration as long as his name shall be remembered. 

The sum collected by his efforts for this noble object was nearly one 
hundred thousand dollars ; but the motives which actuated him to this 
great work were still more beneficent. He believed that a contemplation 
of the character and spirit of the immortal founder of the Republic would 
serve to allay the excitement and bitterness of feeling which the slavery ques- 
tion had produced between the Northern and Southern States. In a public 
speech he alluded to his efforts in behalf of the Mount Vernon cause as 
follows : 

" After the sectional warfare of opinion and feeling reached a dangerous 



CAMPAIGN OF 1832. 83 

height, anxious, if possible, to bring a counteractive and conciliating influ- 
ence into play — feeling that there was yet one golden chord of sympathy 
which ran throughout the land — in the hope of contributing something, 
however small, to preserve what remained, and restore what was lost of 
kind feeling between the two sections of the country, I devoted the greater 
part of my time for three years to the attempt to give new strength in the 
hearts of my countrymen to the last patriotic feeling in which they seemed 
to beat in entire unison — veneration and love for the name of Washington, 
and reverence for the place of his rest. With this object in view, I 
travelled thousands of miles, by night and by day, in midwinter and mid- 
summer, speaking three, four, and five times a week, in feeble health, and 
under a heavy burden of domestic care and sorrow, and including the 
priceless value of the Union in precisely the same terms from Maine to 
Georgia and from New York to St. Louis." 

In i860 Mr. Everett was nominated for the Vice-Presidency by the 
American or Compromise party, with the Hon. John Bell, of Tennessee, 
as the candidate for the Presidency. But the time for compromises was 
past, and both North and South eagerly nerved themselves for the approach- 
ing conflict. The American party received only one eighth of the electoral 
vote. 

Perceiving that war was inevitable, and satisfied that he had done all that 
was in his power to avert it, he accepted the issue, and henceforth devoted 
all his energies to the support of the Federal Government. The single 
exception alluded to, in which Mr. Everett once more discharged a high 
public function in the national service, was his fulfilment of the imposing 
charge given him by the people of Massachusetts, when they chose him 
their Presidential elector, in November, 1864. The last occasion on which 
his voice was heard in public was at a meeting held in Faneuil Hall on 
Monday, January 12th, 1865, for the relief of the people of Savannah. He 
died three days later, in the seventy-first year of his age. 

To Everett, as an orator, must be accorded the finest and most complete 
proportions that have marked any speaker of the century. The mould of 
personal form, all the graces, the voice, the cadences, partly constitutional 
and partly acquired, all that is histrionic and attractive, all that nature 
could furnish and art could add, belonged in largest measure and in purest 
style to him. 



84 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



RUFUS CHOATE. 

Rufus Choate is to be ranked as the greatest American advocate. He 
was an able lawyer, a shining statesman, an all-accomplished man of letters. 
He will be remembered always as holding the same relation to America 
that Curran held to Ireland and Erskine to Great Britain. 

Rufus Choate was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, October ist, 1799, 
and died in July, 1859, in the sixtieth year of his age. 

He is known to the world outside of his profession of the law chiefly by 
his speeches in the United States Senate and his addresses to the people 
on political and literary subjects from the caucus and lyceum platforms. 
He grew up in Essex County, Massachusetts, with but ordinary oppor- 
tunities of schooling. When he was sixteen years old he entered Dart- 
mouth College, but a brilliant boyhood had already made him sufficiently 
known to excite in many quarters of old Essex strong hopes of his future. 
His college course increased these expectations. After graduating he 
taught school, but soon adopted the law as his profession. He entered the 
Dane Law School, remaining there a few months, and then, leaving his 
Essex home, continued his studies in Washington, in the office of William 
Wirt, then Attorney-General of the United States. He stayed in this office 
one year. He had the good fortune to hear the last great argument of 
William Pickney and one of the first of Daniel Webster in the Senate. He 
then entered the office of Judge Cummins, of Salem, and in September, 
1823, he was admitted to the bar of Common Pleas of that county, and 
opened an office in the town of Danvers, near by. In two or three years 
he removed to Salem, and in 1825 was admitted to the bar of the Supreme 
Judicial Court. His success was almost instantaneous. 

In 1825 he was elected to the Legislature of Massachusetts, and in 1827 
was a member of the State Senate. In 1832 he was elected to Congress 
from the Essex district, but declined a re-election. In these occasional 
forays into politics he distinguished himself by set speeches, florid, erudite, 
and fervid. 

A friend of Mr. Choate, referring to his election to Congress, said : 
" We all rejoiced in his honors, he bore them so meekly. He never 
sought office ; office always sought him." 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 832. 85 

In 1 84 1 he took Mr. Webster's chair in the Senate when that gentleman 
entered General Harrison's Cabinet. 

In the Senate he made those speeches which have most drawn upon 
him the attention of a nation. Most of them were carefully revised by 
himself and officially published. The speech on the Oregon question, in 
reply to Mr. Buchanan, those on the tariff, the annexation of Texas, to 
provide further remedial justice in the courts of the United States, were of 
leading importance. 

In the Senate he was regarded as the especial friend and expounder of 
the views of the Secretary of State, Mr. Webster. This led to an unfortu- 
nate encounter between him and Mr. Clay, who was enraged at Webster's 
remaining in office under President Tyler. 

His style of Senatorial address was the same passionate and pictorial 
stream of speech as his jury appeals. The Southern and Western men, 
especially, spoke with enthusiasm of that dark-faced Senator from Massa- 
chusetts, with curling locks and such a delightful flow of words. 

In 1845 he returned to the practice of the profession of which he was so 
fond, and in which he was working when death found him, still busy. 

When he left the Senate his public life may be said to have closed. 
From then on the strictly professional current of his life was only broken 
by his hurried visit to Europe, in 1850, his addresses, and his services in 
the Constitutional Convention of Massachusetts. 

Of his political addresses, the ones in which he seemed to throw his 
heart most warmly and his imagination most brilliantly, were those of the 
campaign of 1848, which closed with the election of General Taylor to the 
Presidency, and those of the campaign of the compromises, which ended 
with the defeat of Daniel Webster for the nomination to that office. 

In the career of the frontier captain, Zachary Taylor ; his intrepid march 
of victory from Monterey to Buena Vista ; his answer to Santa Anna when 
summoned to surrender, the vivid imagination of Mr. Choate found fitting 
field. 

His love of Webster was at once womanly and Homeric. In his speech 
of March, 1852, he closed a highly-wrought peroration by a singularly 
homely and practical illustration, which exemplified the startling anti-cli- 
max, always one of his oratoric weapons. When in summing up the 
thoughts which for an hour he had hurled upon the crowded audience 
surging in the vast hall before him, he reached what appeared to be the 
acme of powerful eulogium upon Webster ; he suddenly stopped, threw 



86 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

himself forward in the attitude in which a sailor would heave on rope on 
the ship's deck. " Now, boys," he exclaimed, " don't you think he'd be 
a good pilot ?" There was a great response from the crowd. "Then, 
altogether now, and heave him on to the quarter-deck." • 

The public address to which he devoted the most study of his life was 
his oration on Mr. Webster, delivered at Dartmouth College in August, 

i853. 

A description of Mr. Choate during his prime was penned by a friend. 
" Mr. Choate was rather a tall and full-sized man, and looked worn, but 
sturdy and muscular. He was strongly built, with big bones, broad 
shoulders, large feet and bony hands, and of a tough fibre in his general 
physique. More than this, he had the nervous, bilious temperament — the 
temperament for hard work, as well as brilliant work. His chest was wide 
and powerful, and his floating hair, which is, in some degree, a test of a 
strong constitution, resisted all the inflammation of his busy brain, and 
remained to the last firmly set. It was always black, and hardly tinged 
with those gray hues which have been called the ' white flag of truce which 
old age hangs out to the hatreds of life. ' He was a very strong man, 
capable of vast fatigue. From his frequent sick-headaches and the appear- 
ance of his face, many supposed him a feeble man. It was not feebleness, 
but immense overwork which eventually wore him down." 



PRESIDENT JACKSON'S SECOND CABINET. 

Secretaries of State. — Edward Livingston, of Louisiana, continued ; 
Louis McLane, of Delaware, appointed May 29th, 1833 ; John Forsyth, 
of Georgia, appointed June 27th, 1834. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. — Louis McLane, of Delaware, continued ; 
William I. Duane, of Pennsylvania, appointed May 29th, 1833 ; Levi 
Woodbury, of New Hampshire, appointed June 27th, 1834. 

Secretary of War. — Lewis Cass, of Michigan, continued. 

Secretaries of the Navy.— Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, contin- 
ued ; Mahlon Dickerson, of New Jersey, appointed June 30th, 1834. 

Postmasters-General.— William T. Barry, of Kentucky, continued ; 
Amos Kendall, of Kentucky, appointed May 1st, 1835. 

Attorneys-General. — Roger B. Taney, of Marvland, continued ; Benja- 
min F. Butler, of New York, appointed June 24th, 1834. 



g^sS-aia.Tj, 




Horatio Seymour. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1836. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Martin Van Buren of New York. 

For Vice-President. 
Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky. 

WHIG NOMINEES. 

For President. 
William Henry Harrison of Ohio. 

For Vice-President. 
Francis Granger of New York. 

CONVENTIONS AND NOMINATIONS. 

The Democratic party, in a national convention held at Baltimore on 
the 1 6th day of May, 1835, nominated Martin Van Buren for President 
and Richard M. Johnson for Vice-President. 

The Whigs held a convention at Albany on the 3d day of February, 
1836, and nominated General William H. Harrison for President and 
Francis Granger for Vice-President. Delegates were only present from 
New York State. 

The anti -Masons, at their second national convention, indorsed the 
Albany nominations. 

Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, and 
Willie P. Mingum, of North Carolina, were candidates before the people. 



90 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

The election gave Van Buren 170 electoral votes; General Harrison, 
73 ; Hugh L. White, 26 ; Webster, 14, and Mingum, 11. 



WENDELL PHILLIPS. 

Wendell Phillips, the great Abolition orator, was born in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, on the 29th of November, 181 1, and died in his native city 
on the 2d of February, 1884. 

A thorough preparatory course of study preceded his admission to Har- 
vard College in 1827, from which institution he graduated in 1831. Three 
years later he was admitted to the bar, and shortly thereafter he was a wit- 
ness of the mob in which Garrison was dragged disgracefully through the 
streets of Boston for the crime of speaking his conscientious opinions. 
This scene made a deep impression on young Phillips, and a resolution 
was then formed in his mind to do what he could for the cause of liberty. 
The shooting of Rev. E. P. Lovejoy at Albion, Illinois, on the 7th of 
December, 1837, by a mob, while attempting to defend his printing-press 
from destruction, was another event which moved his feelings and gave 
him his first subject for his first public speech. When the news of this 
event was received in Boston, Dr. Channing headed a petition to the mayor 
and aldermen asking the use of Faneuil Hall, in which to hold a public 
meeting to express indignation at the outrage. 

It will hardly be credited by the present generation that a request so 
reasonable and so natural should have been denied. The mayor and alder- 
men of Boston in those days would do naught to offend Southern masters, 
and however well disposed toward their own distinguished citizens, dared 
not encourage them in the expression of any sentiments which might possi- 
bly be disagreeable to the South. This was the third printing-press which 
Lovejoy had attempted to defend. Dr. Channing, undismayed by the first 
rebuff, addressed an impressive letter to his fellow-citizens, which resulted in 
a meeting of influential gentlemen at the old court-room. Here measures 
were taken to secure a much larger number of names to the petition, and 
this being accomplished, the mayor and aldermen consented to the use of 
the historic hall. The meeting was held on the 8th of December, with the 
Hon. Jonathan Phillips as chairman. Dr. Channing opened the meeting 



CAMPAIGiY OF 1 836. 91 

with an eloquent address, and resolutions prepared by him were read and 
offered. 

The Attorney-General of Massachusetts appeared now as the advocate of 
the assailants of Lovejoy. He compared the slaves, for whose liberty the 
sympathetic editor had pleaded, to a menagerie of wild beasts, and the Alton 
rioters to the orderly mob who threw the tea overboard in Boston Harbor 
in 1773 ; talked of the " conflict of laws" between Missouri and Illinois ; 
declared that Lovejoy was presumptuous and imprudent, and died as the 
fool or idiot. Then, with direct and insulting reference to Dr. Channing, 
he asserted that a clergyman with a gun in his hand, or one mingling in 
the debates of a popular assembly, were equally out of place. 

This speech produced much sensation in the hall, and Wendell Phillips, 
who had come only as an interested spectator, without expecting to speak, 
rose immediately to his feet, and amid the boisterous confusion, which was 
started to drown his voice, proceeded to address the assemblage. That 
solemn and impressive demeanor which was his, was present with him then. 
That immense force which he always seemed to hold in reserve, and which, 
if he were to let out, would annihilate any object of his attack, was shown 
on that occasion. " Sir," he said, in the course of this speech, " when I 
heard the gentleman lay down principles which place the murderers of 
Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I 
thought those precious lips (pointing to the portraits in the hall) would 
have broken into voices to rebuke the recreant American ; the slander of the 
dead. . . . Sir, for the sentiments that he has uttered, on soil consecrated 
by the prayers of the Puritans and the blood of patriots, the earth should 
have yawned and swallowed him up." A storm of mingled applause and 
hisses interrupted the bold young orator, with cries of " Take that back — 
take that back !" The confusion for a time was so great he could not be 
heard. 

Mr. Phillips came forward to the edge of the platform, and looking on 
the excited throng with that calm, firm, severe look which never failed to 
subdue an excited assemblage, said, solemnly : " Fellow-citizens, I cannot 
take back my words. Surely the attorney-general, so long and well known 
here, needs not the aid of your hisses against one so young as I am— my 
voice never before heard in your walls." After this the young orator 
received the respectful attention of the audience without interruption. In 
further allusion to the speech of the attorney-general, he said : "Impudent 
to defend the liberty of the press ! Why ? Because the defence was un- 



92 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

successful ! Does success gild crime into patriotism and the want of it 
change heroic self-devotion into imprudence ? Was Hampden imprudent 
when he drew the sword and threw away the scabbard ? Yet he, judged by 
that single hour, was unsuccessful. After a short exile the race he hated 
sat again upon the throne. 

" Imagine yourselves present when the first news of Bunker Hill battle 
reached a New England town. The tale would have run thus : ' The 
patriots are routed —the red-coats victorious — Warren lies dead upon the 
field.' With what scorn would that Tory have been received who should 
have charged Warren with imprudence, who should have said that, ' bred 
a physician, he was out of place, and died as the fool dieth.' How would 
the intimation have been received that Warren and his successors should 
have waited a better time ? 

"Presumptuous to assert the freedom of the press on American 
ground ! Is the assertion of such freedom before the age ? So much be- 
fore the age as to leave no one a right to make it because it displeases the 
community ? Who invented this libel on his country ? It is this very 
thing which entitled Lovejoy to greater praise. The disputed right which 
provoked the revolution was far beneath that for which he died. As much 
as thought is better than money, so much is the cause in which Lovejoy 
died nobler than a mere question of taxes. James Otis thundered in this 
hall when the king did but touch his pocket. Imagine, if you can, his in- 
dignant eloquence if England had offered to put a gag on his lips. Mr. 
Chairman, from the bottom of my heart I thank that brave little band at 
Alton for resisting." Wendell Phillips arose the morning after his first 
speech to find himself famous as a great orator for the cause of liberty, as 
Patrick Henry had awakened to a similar realization nearly seventy-five 
years before. 

From that time Wendell Phillips was identified with the radical Aboli- 
tionists. His nature led him at once to take the most strenuous and vigor- 
ous grounds side by side with William Lloyd Garrison. He believed the 
Constitution of the United States, by an incidental complicity with slavery, 
had become a sinful compact — ' a covenant with death and an agreement 
with hell ' — and with the unquestioning consistency which belonged to his 
Puritan blood, he did not hesitate to sacrifice to this belief his whole pro- 
fessional future. He abandoned his legal practice, and took leave of the 
Suffolk bar, because he could not conscientiously take the oath to support 
the Constitution of the United States. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 836. 93 

Mrs. Stowe says, in her biography : " Henceforth there was no career 
open to him but that of the agitator and popular reformer. He brought to 
the despised and unfashionable cause not only the prestige of one of the 
most honored Massachusetts names, and the traditions of a family which 
was among orthodox circles as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, but the power of 
decidedly the first forensic orator that America has ever produced. His 
style was so dazzling, so brilliant, his oratory so captivating, that even the 
unpopularity of his sentiments could not prevent the multitudes from flock- 
ing to hear him. He had in a peculiar degree that mesmeric power of 
control which distinguishes the true orator, by which he holds a multitude 
subject to his will, and carries them whither he pleases. 

" His speeches were generally extempore, and flowed on with a wonder- 
ful correctness and perfect finish of language, without faltering, without the 
shadow of an inelegance, his sentences succeeding one another with a poised 
and rhythmical fulness, and his illustrations happily running through the 
field of ancient and modern history, and with the greatest ease selecting 
whatever he needed from thence for the illustration of his subject. In 
invective no American or English orator has ever surpassed him. At the 
bar of his fervid oratory he would arraign, try, and condemn with a solemn 
and dignified earnestness that might almost have persuaded the object of 
his attack of his own guilt." 

Mr. Phillips had a way of making his fame and reputation gain him a 
hearing on the unpopular subject which he had most at heart. Committees 
from anxious Lyceums used to wait on him for his terms, sure of being able 
to fill a house by his name. 

" What are your terms, Mr. Phillips ?" 

" If I lecture on anti-slavery, nothing. If on any other subject, one 
hundred dollars." 

When the war was ended and the emancipation of the slave became a 
realization of Mr. Phillips's hope and labor, the great work of his life was 
finished, as the class of gifts and faculties which he possessed, and which 
are essential to force attention to neglected truths, were not those most 
adapted to the delicate work of reconstruction. ' ' The good knight who 
can cut and hew in battle cannot always do the surgeon's work of healing 
and restoring. That exacting ideality which is the leading faculty of Mr. 
Phillips's nature leads him constantly to undervalue what has been attained, 
and it is to be regretted that it deprived him of the glow and triumph of a 
victory in which no man than he better deserved to rejoice. 



94 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

" Garrison hung up his shield and sword at a definite point, and marked 
the era of victory with devout thankfulness ; and we can but regret that the 
more exacting mind of Phillips was too much fixed on what yet was want- 
ing to share the well-earned joy. 

" When there is strong light there must be shadow, and the only shadow 
we discern in the public virtues of Mr. Phillips is the want of a certain 
power to appreciate and make allowances for the necessary weaknesses and 
imperfections of human nature." 



CALEB GUSHING. 

The seemingly antagonistic callings of lawyer, soldier, and statesman 
were happily blended in Caleb Cushing, who was born at Salisbury, Mas- 
sachusetts, January 17th, 1800. 

Mr. Cushing was a member of a family that has been noted in Massa- 
chusetts from the early colonial days. 

He graduated at Harvard College in 181 8, and afterward became a 
student at the college for two years in moral philosophy, mathematics, and 
law. After continuing the study of law for five years he was admitted to 
practice, and settled in Newburyport. While he rose rapidly in the legal 
profession, he did not neglect literature or abstain from political pursuits. 
He was a frequent contributor to the North American Review and other 
periodicals. 

He was, in 1825, chosen a member of the Lower House of the State 
Legislature, and one year later was elected a Senator. In 1829 he visited 
Europe on a tour of pleasure, and remained abroad nearly two years. On 
his return to Massachusetts he published an " Historical and Political 
Review" of European affairs, consequent on the occurrences of the French 
Revolution of 1830, and also his " Reminiscences of Spain." 

He was again sent to the Legislature for the years 1833 and 1834, and 
finally represented the Essex district in the Lower House of Congress. To 
this position he was three times re-elected, serving regularly until March, 
1843. He supported John Quincy Adams for the Presidency, and was a 
Whig until the accession of Mr. Tyler, whose administration he supported, 
and became classed as a Democrat. In 1843 President Tyler nominated 
him as Secretary of the Treasury, but the nomination was rejected by the 



CAMPAIGN OF 1S36. 95 

Senate. , In the summer of that year he went to China as commissioner, 
and in 1844 negotiated the first treaty of the United States Government 
with China. On his return he was again elected a Representative in the 
Massachusetts Legislature, and in 1847 ^ e raised a regiment for the Mexi- 
can War, furnishing the requisite money to equip the same. He was 
then appointed colonel of the regiment, and in the spring of 1847 accom- 
panied it to Mexico. He was attached to the army of General Taylor, 
and soon after received the appointment of brigadier-general. While still 
in Mexico, in 1847 and 1848, he was nominated by the Democratic party 
of Massachusetts, but was defeated. In 1850, for the sixth time, he repre- 
sented Newburyport in the Legislature. In the same year he was selected 
as the first mayor of that city, and was re-elected the following year. In 
1852 he was appointed a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, a 
post which he filled until March, 1853, when he was appointed by Presi- 
dent Pierce United States Attorney-General, from which office he retired 
March 4th, 1S57. Again he became a member of the Massachusetts Leg- 
islature, and co-operated with the Democratic party in its opposition to the 
anti-slavery aggressions. In April, 1861, he tendered his services to Gov- 
ernor Andrew, " in any capacity, however humble, in which it may be 
possible for me to contribute to the public weal in the present critical 
emergency. ' ' The governor, an ardent anti slavery and war champion, 
did not respond. 

His services were often employed during the war in the departments at 
Washington, and in 1866 he was appointed commissioner to codify the 
laws of Congress. In 1S6S he was sent to Bogota to arrange a diplomatic 
difficulty. 

President Grant appointed him one of the American counsel before the 
tribunal of arbitration that was provided for by the treaty of Washington 
for the settlement of the Alabama claims, which met at Geneva in 1871, 
and concluded its labors nine months later. The other counsel were Mr. 
Waite, now Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and 
William M. Evaits. In 1873 he published a volume entitled " The Treaty 
of Washington," in which he sharply criticises the character and conduct 
of Sir Alexander Cockburn, the British arbitrator. This work, though 
written in his seventy-fourth year, shows no decline of mental power in the 
author. 

The death of Chief- justice Chase, in the spring of 1873, created a 
vacancy in the highest judicial office in the country. At the close of the 



g6 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

year President Grant sought to have the office filled by the appointment of 
General Gushing, but the Senate evinced so much reluctance to confirming 
the nomination that he declined it. Soon afterward he was nominated and 
confirmed as Minister to Spain, our relations with which had become ex- 
ceedingly critical, owing to circumstances that grew out of the Cuban in- 
surrection. Assuming this arduous post in his seventy-fifth year, Mr. 
Gushing discharged his duties with ability and fidelity, and to the entire 
satisfaction of the appointing power and also of his country. He arrived 
home in April, 1877, and from that time until his death, which occurred 
at Newburyport, January 2d, 1879, enjoyed a well-earned rest, his intellect 
remaining unclouded to the last. 

Notwithstanding Caleb Cushing's prominent and successful career, ex- 
tending as it did for over half a century, and embracing all branches of 
political life, he was never popular. Neither the Whig nor the Republican 
party really liked him, and he was still further from being a favorite with 
the Democrats. 



SARGEANT S. PRENTISS. 

Sargeant Smith Prentiss was born at Portland, Maine, on the 30th day 
of September, 18 10. He received a classical education at Bowdoin Col- 
lege, and at the age of about eighteen years he went to Mississippi, where, 
in the vicinity of Natchez, he spent two years as tutor in a private family 
and in the pursuit of legal studies, under the instruction of General Felix 
Houston. 

Mr. Prentiss was always remarkable, from boyhood, for fluency of lan- 
guage and ready wit, and his first speech to a jury, after being admitted to 
the bar, won for him the highest applause from judges, colleagues, and 
opponents. 

He made Vicksburg (then a small village) his residence in 1830, and 
he soon became the acknowledged head of his profession in that region. 
His eloquence was of that popular order which always charms and over- 
powers, and, like O'Connell, he could adapt his words and figures to his 
particular audience with wonderful facility. His practice became very 
lucrative, and the payment of his fee, in land, for his successful manage- 
ment of a suit which involved the most valuable portion of Vicksburg, 
made him, in a short time, one of the wealthiest men in the State. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 836. , 97 

Mr. Prentiss entered the field of politics with great enthusiasm, and was 
a brilliant and successful stump orator ; but at about the time his fellow- 
citizens called him to serve in the national councils he became embar- 
rassed during the financial troubles of 1836, and removed to New Orleans, 
to retrieve his fortune by professional labor. 

He first became known to the people of the United States in general 
when, in 1837, he appeared in the House of Representatives as a claimant 
of a disputed seat there. His speech in favor of his claim was listened to 
with the most profound attention, and it was admitted by all that he had 
no superior in the country as an eloquent and logical parliamentary de- 
bater. His claim was rejected by the casting vote of the Speaker, Mr. 
Polk, and he was sent back to the people. He at once canvassed the 
State, and was re-elected by an overwhelming majority. 

His services in the House of Representatives were brief, but brilliant in 
the extreme. 

Private engagements and a distaste for political life, produced by his dis- 
covery of its hollowness and its dangers, caused him to refuse office, and 
with great industry he applied himself to his profession in New Orleans. 
He was eminently successful. No man ever possessed greater powers of 
fascination by his forensic oratory than he, and few jurors could withstand 
that power. 

Nor was he entirely absorbed in professional duties. He was distin- 
guished for his love and knowledge of literature, and he was always 
prominent in philanthropic movements in the chosen city of his residence. 
His social qualities were of the highest order, and the attachment of his 
friends was exceedingly strong. 

In the heat of his active career, and bearing the blossoms of greatest 
promise, he was suddenly stricken with disease, and died at Longwood, 
near Natchez, on the 1st of July, 1850. 



PRESIDENT VAN BUREN'S CABINET. 



Secretary of State. — John Forsyth, of Georgia, continued. 
Secretary of the Treasury. — Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, con- 
tinued. 



98 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Secretary of War. — Joel R. Poinsett, of South Carolina, appointed 
March 7th, 1837. 

Secretaries of the Navy. — Mahlon Dickerson, of New Jersey, continued ; 
Janies K. Paulding, of New York, appointed June 30th, 1838. 

Postmasters-General. — Amos Kendall, of Kentucky, continued ; John 
M. Niles, of Connecticut, appointed May 25th, 1840. 

Attorneys-General. — Benjamin F. Butler, of New York, continued ; 
Felix Grundy, of Tennessee, appointed September 1st, 1838 ; Henry D. 
Gilpin, of Pennsylvania, appointed January 10th, 1840. 




Daniel Dougherty. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1840. 

WHIG NOMINEES. 

For President. 
William H. Harrison of Ohio. 

For Viee-P 'resident. 
John Tyler of Virginia. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Martin Van Buren of New York. 

For Vice-President. 
Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky. 

conventions and nominations. 

The Whigs met in national convention at Harrisburg on the 4th of 
December, 1839. and selected as their candidates for President and Vice- 
President General William H. Harrison and General John Tyler. 

The Democratic party assembled in national convention at Baltimore on 
the 5th of May, 1840, and unanimously nominated Martin Van Buren for 
President. The convention left the selection of a Vice-President to the 
States. 

On November 13th, 1839, the Abolition party, which grew out of the 
National Anti-Slavery Society, held a convention at Warsaw, New York, 
and nominated James G. Birney, of Michigan, for President, and Francis 
I. Lemoyne, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. These nominees both 



102 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

declined, and die organization, in 1840, merged into the Liberty Party. 
and this latter party, at a convention subsequently held at Buffalo, nomi- 
nated James G. Birney for President and Thomas Earle for Vice-President. 

The canvass of 1S40 marks a new era in the manner of conducting Presi- 
dential campaigns. Every possible means was employed to arouse popular 
enthusiasm. Mass meetings and processions were now first brought into 
use. The slur which had been cast upon Harrison that he lived in a " log 
cabin," with nothing to drink but " hard cider," was utilized as an elec- 
tioneering appeal. Log cabins became a regular feature in political pro- 
cessions, and " hard cidei" one of the watchwords of the party. 

The result of the election gave General Harrison 234 electoral votes 
against 60 for Van Buren. 



THOMAS CORWIN. 

Thomas Corwin was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, July 29th, 
1794. 

His father, Matthias Corwin, four years later removed with his family to 
what was then the North-western Territory, and settled near where Leba- 
non, Ohio, is now located. 

Thomas Corwin was reared on a farm, where he was kept at hard labor, 
except in the winter months, when he studied at school or at home, as 
circumstances permitted. With limited opportunities he acquired much 
solid information. 

In 181 5 he commenced the study of law, and was admitted to the bar 
three years later. Corwin was a marvellous man, and no American of his 
time had higher claims to the title of orator than he. 

His name bore magic to every one who had heard him speak, and the 
impression which he stamped upon an auditor was one of the enduring 
marks which the memory is last to surrender. 

Very early in life he began to display his unusual powers. His strong 
phrases and vivid descriptions soon spread beyond the range of his own 
circle, and every inhabitant of Turtle Creek Valley felt pride in Tom 
Corwin. 

In 1830 he made his first stump speech at Petersburg, in Highland 
County. The gentleman who rode over with him from Wilmington, and 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 840. IO3 

who heard the speech, remembers it as rather a sober effort, except the 
conclusion. " My speech," impressively said the young orator, " is now 
ended. No doubt you are all excessively weary. I can say, most con- 
scientiously (placing his right hand solemnly upon his bosom and betray- 
ing a good deal of that facial power for which he afterward became so 
famous), that I am ; and my mouth is as dry as a powder-horn. I pro- 
pose that we adjourn, without further ceremony, to Captain Jessup's, and 
refresh ourselves. I can certify to the high qualities of the article he 
keeps." 

In 1840 he made a famous speech in reply to Crary, of Michigan, who 
had attacked the military reputation of General Harrison, which gave him 
a national reputation. The next day after its delivery John Quincy Adams 
referred to the vanquished gentleman " as the late Mr. Crary, of Michigan." 

The Whigs of Ohio made him their candidate for governor the same year, 
and during that canvass he rose to the zenith of his great popularity. For 
more than a hundred days, at as many different places, he spoke from two 
to three hours to great out-door assemblages, swaying them as he willed by 
his magical oratory. Never was man more completely the idol of the 
people. They pressed round him, and triumphantly carried him on their 
shoulders. They hung entranced upon every sentence which he uttered. 
Every day as he grew in favor he increased in intellectual stature, until it 
seemed the possibilities of his genius had no limit. 

Notwithstanding such opportunities for training in the great art of popu- 
lar eloquence — more powerful than any other in a people's government — 
few indeed who aspired to pre-eminence proved themselves possessed of the 
rare qualities essential, that would always bear the test, always meet expec- 
tation, ami never weary. Corvvin was one of the few and the chief. His 
voice was as clear as a silver bell, and attuned to the sweetest melody. In 
gesture he was as graceful and forcible as forest trees bowing before an 
approaching storm. 

He knew the power of action, and, like Roscius, could express by gesture 
every variety of emotion and passion. In the Harrison campaign of 1840, 
a gentleman, among forty thousand others, was listening to one of Corwin's 
great speeches. Beside him was a man as deaf as the stump on which the 
orator figuratively stood, in breathless attention, apparently catching every 
word Now the tears of delight would roll down his cheeks, and again, in 
ungovernable ecstasy, he would shout out applauses of the most vehement 
nature. 



104 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

At length the speaker launched out one of those passages of massive 
declamation for which he was so distinguished. Its effect upon the multi- 
tude was like a whirlwind. The deaf man could contain himself no longer, 
but yelled into the bystander's ear, "Who's that a-speaking ?" "Tom 
Corwin," replied the gentleman, as loud as his lungs would permit. 
"Who?" inquired the deaf man, still louder than before. "Tom 
Corwin," replied the gentleman, almost renting his throat in the effort. 
"Well, well," continued the afflicted man, "I can't hear a word he or 
you are saying ; but, great Jackson, don't he do the motions splendid !" 

Speakers of that period were frequently interrupted, and many amusing 
colloquies occurred. Corwin was ever ready for a reply, and a person who 
had once been answered seldom ventured a second question. On one 
occasion, during the campaign above referred to, some one interrupted the 
great orator and asked, " How can it be possible that so much trouble and 
hard times exist, and yet the men we have elected to office never whisper a 
word about it ?" 

Corwin' s droll features began working, the very sight of which, before he 
had said a word, brought forth the audible smiles of the multitude. 

" Fellow-citizens," said he, in deliberate tones, " I ever allude to the 
Holy Scriptures with deepest reverence, and on occasions like the present 
but seldom; but that venerable patriarch, Job, has so completely unrav- 
elled the difficulty of my honest opponent, that I must trespass to quote his 
words : ' Doth a wild beast bray while he hath grass, or loweth the ox over 
his fodder ? ' " 

Two years later Corwin was again nominated for governor. Every one 
knew he would be elected, and hence no particular need of his leaving 
home to vote. This feeling pervaded the whole State, and great was the 
astonishment when the returns showed their idol was defeated. A farmer 
went to Lebanon to apologize for his dereliction of duty, and offered as an 
excuse the threatening weather, which he thought might catch his grain. 
" Yes," said Corwin, " that is the way with you farmers; and to save a 
little buckwheat you lost the best governor Ohio ever had." 

Corwin knew the world, and seemed to see quite through the deeds of 
men. His quick sympathies took up every phase of life and made it his own. 

To his great heart, perhaps it may be said, he owed his greatness more 
than to his great intellect. 

The career of this brilliant orator closed in the city of Washington on 
the 1 8th day of December, 1865. 



CAMPAIGN OF 184O. 105 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 

Unlike many of the public leaders during the anti-slavery and war era, 
William Pitt Fessenden was of gentle birth and university education. His 
father was a distinguished Maine lawyer. The son was graduated from 
Bowdoin College in 1S23, when only seventeen years of age. Four years 
later he was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Bridgton, Maine, 
removing in 1829 to Portland. At the age of twenty-five he entered public 
life as the youngest member of the Maine Legislature, and showed great 
skill as a debater. He did not return to that body for seven years, devot- 
ing himself in the mean time to his profession, in which he rose to emi- 
nence. When thirty-five years of age he was elected to Congress as a 
Whig, served one term, and declined a renomination. His speech on the 
Loan and Bankrupt Bills are said to have created a good impression in Con- 
gress. 

During the next ten years he was in the State Legislature two terms, was 
twice a candidate for United States Senator, and a member of several 
national conventions. In 1854 a union of Whigs and Free-Soil Democrats 
in the Maine Legislature sent him to the United States Senate. This was 
the birth of the Republican party in that State, and Mr. Fessenden was one 
of its greatest exponents. 

It is unusual for a Senator to rise to eminence during his first session in 
that august body. Mr. Fessenden took his seat on February 23d, 1854. 
Within a fortnight he made a speech against the Nebraska bill, which was 
so eloquent that he at once became a leader among the Senators. In this 
speech he asserted that the South had already received her dues in the 
slavery contest, and that the present dissension was due to a desire on the 
part of the South to rob the North of the little left her. A number of 
notable speeches were afterward made by him, among them a severe re- 
view of President Buchanan's message on the Kansas question. He was 
returned to the Senate in 1859, and throughout the -jvar supported the 
cause of the Union with his eloquence and logic. He was chairman of the 
Finance Committee, and hence had an important part to play in maintain- 
ing the nation's credit. It is said that as a general debater he was without 
a superior ; he had wit, ready knowledge, and sarcasm to annoy his ene- 
mies. He was a careful legislator and a practical statesman. 



106 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

One of his notable speeches was made in 1862, in advocacy of a bill to 
provide for the employment of negro soldiers. In the course of his ad- 
dress he said : " I tell the President, from my place here as Senator, and I 
tell the generals of our army they must reverse their practices and their 
course of proceeding on this subject. I advise it, here from my place — 
treat your enemies as enemies — as the worst of enemies — and avail your- 
selves like men of every power which God has placed in your hands to ac- 
complish your purpose, within the rules of civilized warfare." 

As Secretary of the Treasury, from July 5th, 1864, to March 4th, 1865, 
he restored the faith of the people in the ability of the Government to 
meet its obligations, and during that time gold fell from a premium of 185 
to 99. 

He reentered the Senate in 1865. During the impeachment trial of 
Andrew Johnson Senator Fessenden surprised his friends and constituents 
by voting for acquittal. He made an elaborate defence of his course, in 
which he said that it was too grave a matter in which to yield to popular 
clamor or party spirit. He was everywhere condemned, but his well- 
known integrity and his efforts for the triumph of the Republican party in 
the election of General Grant, caused a reaction in his favor. 

When he died, in 1869, the Nation said of him : " Senator Fessenden 
is doubtless not to be called a great man, able as he was, nor a man of 
wide culture in any field ; but he was a man who has left to his country 
the legacy of a character and a career as lofty as that of any American who 
ever led a public life." 



PRESIDENT HARRISON'S CABINET. 

Secretary of State. — Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, appointed March 
5th, 1841. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, appointed March 
5th, 184 1. 

Secretary of War. — John Bell, of Tennessee, appointed March 5th, 
1841. 

Secretary of the Navy. —George E. Badger, of North Carolina, appoint- 
ed March 5th, 1 84 1. 

Postmaster-General. -—Francis Granger, of New York, appointed March 
6th, 1 84 1. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1840. 107 

Attorney-General. — John I. Crittenden, of Kentucky, appointed March 
5th, 1841. 

President Tyler continued all the Cabinet appointments made by Presi- 
dent Harrison until their successors were appointed as follows : 



PRESIDENT TYLER'S CABINET. 

Secretaries of State. — Hugh S. Legare, of South Carolina, appointed 
May 9th, 1843 ; Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, appointed June 24th, 1843 ! 
John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, appointed March 6th, 1844. 

Secretaries of t/ie Treasury. — Walter Forward, of Pennsylvania, ap- 
pointed September 13th, 184 1 ; George M. Bibb, of Kentucky, appointed 
June 15th, 1844. 

Secretaries of War. — John C. Spencer, of New York, appointed Octo- 
ber 1 2th, 1 84 1 ; William Wilkins, of Pennsylvania, appointed February 
15th, 1844. 

Secretaries of the Navy.— Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, appointed Sep- 
tember 13th, 1 84 1 ; David Henshaw, of Massachusetts, appointed Tuly 
24th, 1843 ; Thomas W. Gilmer, of Virginia, appointed February 15th, 
1844 ; John T Mason, of Virginia, appointed March 14th, 1844. 

Postmaster-General. — Charles A. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, appointed 
September 13th, 184 1. 

Attorneys- General. — Hugh S. Legare, of South Carolina, appointed 
September 13th, 1841 ; John Nelson, of Maryland, appointed January 2d, 
1844. 



CHAPTER XV. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1844. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
James K. Polk of Tennessee. 

For Vice-President. 
George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania. 

WHIG NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Henry Clay of Kentucky. 

For Vice-President. 
Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. 

CONVENTIONS AND NOMINATIONS. 

The Democratic National Convention met at Baltimore on the 27th of 
May, and nominated James K. Polk and Silas Wright. Mr. Wright de- 
clined the nomination, and George M. Dallas was subsequently chosen. 

The Whigs met in national convention at Baltimore on the 1st of May, 
and selected Clay and Frelinghuysen. This ticket was received with great 
enthusiasm. 

The Liberty party met in national convention at Buffalo, New York, the 
30th of August, 1843, and presented as candidates James G. Birney, of 
Michigan, and Thomas Morris, of Ohio. 

James K. Polk at this election received 170 electoral votes against 105 
for Henrv Clav. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 844. IO9 



LEWIS CASS. 

The name of Lewis Cass bears a distinctive impress upon the politics of 
his country. 

For more than half a century he was a prominent figure in public affairs, 
and during that time he made his name synonymous with pure integrity 
and indomitable courage. He was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, Octo- 
ber 9th, 1782, and died in Detroit, Michigan, June 17th, 1 806. In 1800 
his father, Major Cass, removed to Marietta, Ohio, where Lewis studied law. 
In 1802 he was admitted to the bar, and began to practise in Zanesville. 

In 1806 he was elected a member of the State Legislature, and in this 
capacity he drew the address to Jefferson', embodying the views of the Leg- 
islature on Aaron Burr's expedition, and drafted the law under which Burr's 
boats and provisions, built and collected in Ohio, were seized. 

From 1807 to 18 13 he was State marshal, and in the War of 18 12 he 
was colonel of the Third Ohio Volunteers, under General Hull, and after 
Hull's surrender was appointed colonel of the Twenty-seventh Infantry, 
and was shortly afterward promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. At 
the close of the war he was in command of Michigan, and was appointed 
governor of the Territory. In 1831 President Jackson appointed him Sec- 
retary of War, and he was at the head of the War Department during the 
first two years of the Florida War, 1835-36. In 1836 he was sent as Min- 
ister to France. The most marked incident of his diplomatic career was 
his attack on the quintuple treaty for the suppression of the slave trade, 
which led to his resignation in 1842. In January, 1S45, he was elected 
United States Senator from Michigan, which place he resigned on his nom- 
ination for the Presidency at the Baltimore Convention on the 2 2d of May, 
1S48. Mr. Cass was a prominent candidate at the Democratic National 
Convention, held four years before in the same city, when James K. Polk 
was the nominee. 

• A division in the Democratic party in New York gave the election to 
General Taylor in 184S, and in June, 1849, Mr. Cass was re-elected to the 
Senate. 

In the Democratic Convention held in Baltimore in 1852 he was again 
a prominent candidate for the Presidency, and was supported by his friends 
with a zeal rarely accorded a candidate in any convention. Franklin Pierce, 



110 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

a name which had not before been mentioned, was introduced on the thirty- 
fifth ballot, and on the forty-ninth ballot he received a majority of votes 
over General Cass, and was made the nominee of the convention. 

When General Cass left a convention without the honor of a nomination, 
he went forth to give his successful rival his earnest support. In 1844 he 
took the stump, and traversed Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and 
Kentucky, urging the people, with argument and eloquence, to cast their 
votes for Polk and Dallas, as in 1852 he proclaimed for Pierce and King. 
In 1856 he was not a Presidential candidate, and warmly concurred in the 
nomination of Mr. Buchanan, and advocated his election with more than 
his usual zeal. 

On Mr. Buchanan's accession to the Presidency, in 1857, he appointed 
Mr. Cass Secretary of State. In December, i860, when Buchanan refused 
to re-enforce Major Anderson and reprovision Fort Sumter, he promptly 
resigned, and closed an honorable public career of fifty-four years- 



DANIEL S. DICKINSON. 

Daniel Stevens Dickinson was born in Goshen, Litchfield County, Con- 
necticut, September nth, 1800. Six years later his parents removed to 
the town of Oxford, Chenango County, New York, where he resided until 
1 83 1, when he made Binghamton, New York, his home. 

From boyhood he was a leader in everything of a public nature, his 
talents and tastes peculiarly adapting him to take a foremost place in the 
ranks. Being once asked if in his youth he had any idea of the promi- 
nence he might attain in maturer years, he replied that there were then 
times when his imagination presented to him pictures of vast throngs, which 
he seemed to be addressing. That kind of public oratory now popularly 
known as " stump speaking" was not much in vogue in the region of 
country where he resided, before the Presidential campaigns of 1840 and 
1S44, personal appeals then being the more common medium through 
which matters of political interest were presented. 

Identifying himself in the early part of his career with the Democratic 
party, he was, in the divisions which from time to time characterized it, 
" Hunker," " Hard Shell," and " War Democrat" — amost zealous expo- 
nent of the principles in which he believed. 




William M. Evarts. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 844. 1 1 3 

Mr. Dickinson had the happy gift of adapting his speeches, with felicitous 
tact, to occasion and circumstance. They were made with few and scanty 
notes, thus largely possessing the charm of spontaneity. He rarely wrote 
them out or even saw the reporter's copy until it appeared in print. If 
extemporaneous effort was called for, he was never surprised into a loss of 
self-possession nor failed to handsomely meet the emergency. 

His style was delightfully varied, and while facts were clearly and forci- 
bly laid before- his audience, they were embellished by original metaphors, 
amusing anecdotes, pertinent quotations, and strains of glowing eloquence. 
His wit was diamond-bright, his humor irresistible, his pathos moving, his 
sarcasm keen and penetrating. He held a magic wand with which he 
could touch the hearts of his hearers, making them weep or laugh at his 
pleasure. 

His mind was richly stored with treasures of poetry and prose, from 
which he made swift and apt selection as his subject might demand, and 
was always ready in sparkling repartee. His frequent illustrations and 
citations from Holy Writ indicated his familiarity with the pages of divine 
inspiration, and gained for him the sobriquet of " Scripture Dick." 

His figure was erect, his countenance animated and genial, his voice 
pleasing and resonant, his manners extremely winning, and he possessed, 
in a marked degree, that personal magnetism which insures to a speaker 
great power over his audience. 

He was very fond of little children ; his heart was full of tenderness for 
them. On one occasion, when in the midst of a speech which Mr. Dickin- 
son was making, the crying of a child in the great assemblage came in as 
an obligato to the speaker's voice. Some incensed hearers called for a 
speedy removal of the young offender ; but Mr. Dickinson, advancing 
nearer the edge of the platform, requested that the little one might 
remain ; that patience should be exercised ; and paid a brief but telling 
and beautiful tribute to maternal love. It is needless to say that the 
mother's embarrassment, from being so conspicuously brought into notice, 
was largely mitigated by the orator's kindly and reassuring words. 

Those conversant with the idiosyncrasies of New York State politics will 
remember the bitter feud between the " Hard " and " Soft" wings of the 
Democratic party. Realizing the necessity of uniting forces in order to 
insure success, Mr. Dickinson used his earnest influence to effect this de- 
sired result, but it proved unavailing. Alluding to this failure in a speech 
made by him at Cooper Institute, New York, July iSth, i860, Mr. Dickin- 



114 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

stung by what he deeply felt to be the treachery of the " Softs," in- 
dignantly declared that he would make no further exertion to secure a 
union with them, and quoted, with much feeling : 

" Twice have I sought Clan-Alpine's glen 
In peace ; but when I come again, 
I come with banner, brand, and bow, 
As leader seeks his mortal foe ! " 

Mr. Dickinson's speeches delivered during the war before great con- 
ges, and upon a topic of such vital interest, are probably the best speci- 
mens of his popular oratory. A devoted lover of the Union, believing, 
with all his heart, in its preservation, his voice was heard throughout the 
land — a clarion call to duty, patriotism, and loyalty. Party interests to him 
were but as " sounding brass and tinkling cymbals'' compared to the mag- 
nitude of the matter at stake, and he engaged in the work with all the 
earnestness and enthusiasm of his nature. 

Mr. Dickinson was greatly beloved by a world-wide circle of friends, and 
even his sharpest political antagonists respected him for his honest worth — 
his pure and unblemished character. He was a devoted husband, an ideal 
father, a faithful friend. In this latter character his sincerity and truth 
were thoroughly tested; for in his fidelity to Lewis Cass Mr. Dickinson 
declined the proud honor which, at the Baltimore Convention of 1852, 
ed within his grasp. 

Mr. Dickinson passed away, after a brief illness, in New York City, April 
1 2th, [866. Said the late lamented and scholarly Lyman Tremaine, in 
his eloquent oration delivered at the dedication of the monument to Mr. 
Dickinson in Spring Forest Cemetery, Binghamton, May 30th, 1872 : " It 
ilieved that some passages in Mr. Dickinson's speeches, for splendid 
diction and beautiful imagery, will compare favorably with the finest sped-, 
mens of ancient and modern oratory." 

But anything approximating a just idea of Mr. Dickinson's great versa- 
tility (if oratorical talent is prevented by the limited proportions of this 
volume. Therefore, from his numerous speeches, space can only be given 
for the following extract, taken from the one made by him at the memorable 
Union Mass Meeting held in Union Square, New York, April 20th, 1861 : 
For myself, in our federal relations, I know but one section, one 
Union, one Hag, one Government. That section embraces every State ; 
nion is the Union sealed with the blood and consecrated by the tears 



CAMPAIGN OF 1S44. 115 

of the revolutionary struggle ; that Hag is the flag known and honored in 
every sea under heaven, which has borne off glorious victory from many a 
bloody battle-field, and yet stirs with warmer and quicker pulsations the 
heart's blood of every true American, when he looks upon its Stars and 
Stripes wherever it waves. That Government is the Government of Wash- 
ington, and Adams, and Jefferson, and Jackson ; a Government which has 
shielded and protected not only us, but God's oppressed children, who 
have gathered under its wings from every portion of the globe ; a Govern- 
ment which, from humble beginnings, has borne us forward with fabulous 
celerity, and made us one of the great and prosperous powers of earth. 
The Union of these States was a bright vision of my early years, the pride 
of my manhood, the ambition of my public service. I have sacrificed 
upon its altar the best energies and choicest hopes of a life checkered by 
vicissitudes and trial. I had believed the contemplation of its beauties 
would be the companion of approaching age and the beguiler of my vacant 
and solitary hours. And now that its integrity is menaced, its fair propor- 
tions disfigured, it is still dear to my heart, as a great fountain of wisdom, 
from which incalculable blessings have flowed. I have rejoiced with it in 
its heyday of success and triumph, and will, by the grace of God, stand 
by it in its hour of darkness and peril, and by those who uphold it in the 
spirit of the Constitution. When the timid falter and the faithless fly- 
when the skies lower, the winds howl, the storm descends, and the tempests 
beat — -when the lightnings flash, the thunders roar, the waves dash, and 
the good ship Union creaks and groans with the expiring throes of dissolu- 
tion, I will cling to her still as the last refuge of hope from the fury of the 
storm ; and if she goes down I will go down with her, rather than survive 
to tell the story of her ignoble end. I will sustain that flag of Stars and 
Stripes, recently made more glorious by Anderson, his officers, and men, 
wherever it waves — over the sea or over the land. And when it shall be 
despoiled and disfigured, I will rally around it still as the star-spangled 
banner of my fathers and my country ; and so long as a single stripe can 
be discovered, or a single star shall glimmer from the surrounding darkness, 
I will cheer it as the emblem of a nation's glory and a nation's hope !" 



Il6 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



THOMAS MARSHALL. 

As an orator, Tom Marshall was the foremost Kentuckian of his time, 

for that matter, of any time, since his time included the first orators 

Kentucky has produced— Clay, Barry, Pope, Rowan, Bledsoe, Menefee, the 

Breckenbridges, and the other Marshalls, some of them only less eloquent 

their peerless kinsman. Yet he made so slight an impression on his 

time, so few are the recorded products of his genius, and so much of his 

fame arose from popular efforts, which perished in the delivery, as. in truth, 

onder- working power of all oratory must needs perish, that his name 

will live chiefly in tradition. 

Mr. Marshall was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, June 7th, 1S01. His 
father, Dr. Lewis Marshall, himself a man of fine intellect, was the youngest 
brother of Chief- Justice Marshall. His mother also was a person of 
remarkable mind as well as remarkable beauty ; so he came honestly by 
his intellectual gifts. Like Mill, Spencer, Buckle, and others of the best- 
trained intellects of the race, young Marshall was educated at home, never 
seeing the inside of a university or college. 

In 1829, as the guest of Justice Marshall, at Richmond, Virginia, he 
attended the debates of the Constitutional Convention, listening to Madison, 
Monroe, Randolph, Leigh, and their compeers, returning home by Wash- 
in in time to hear the great debate between Hayne and Webster. 
In 1S32 he was elected by the Whigs of the county of Woodford to the 
Lower House of the Legislature, where he at once distinguished himself, 
not only as a brilliant speaker, but as a sound and clear thinker. 

The following year he removed to Louisville, resolved to pursue his pro- 
on ; but this resolution was soon broken, for Louisville sent him to the 
islature at the very next election, and at the succeeding one. 
In 1837, still a resident of Louisville, he stood for Congress as an inde- 
pendent candidate, in opposition to William J. Graves, the Whig candidate, 
but was defeated. Marshall, so accustomed to victory, did not take his 
lefeat with humility, but returned to Woodford, whence, for the next two 
was s< nt without opposition to the Legislature. 
: t he was. without opposition, elected to Congress from the Ashland 
trict. Hjs career in Congress was short, but uncommonly brilliant. 
ie of his speeches was on distribution, which John Quincy Adams pro- 



CAMPAIGN OF 1844. 117 

nounced the ablest speech he had heard on the subject, although he had 
just heard Mr. Clay. One other speech of his has come down to us from 
that day — a temperance speech, delivered in the Hall of Representatives, 
before the Congressional Total Abstinence Society, formed, it seems, for the 
reformation of Congressional inebriates, of whom our subject was reputed 
one, though in his speech he protested, with characteristic humor, that his 
inebriety was not habitual. " I had earned, " he said, " a most unenviable 
notoriety by excesses, which, though bad enough, did not half reach the 
reputation they wen for me. I never was an habitual drunkard. I was 
one of your spreeing gentry. My sprees, however, began to crowd each 
other so fast that my best friends feared that they would soon run together. " 

He had great contempt for the administration of Tyler, declaring that 
when the history of the country was written the Tyler administration might 
be put in a parenthesis, which he defined from Lindley Murray as "a 
clause of a sentence inclosed between black lines, or brackets, which should 
be pronounced in a low tone of voice, and which might be left out alto- 
ler without injuring the sense. " 

Mr. Marshall fought, during this time, a duel with James Watson Webb. 
Webb was shot below the knee-joint, prompting Marshall to cry out on the 
spot, " It is the lowest act of my life.' ' Marshall, in the course of his life, 
fought two other duels, one with a son of Judge Rowan, of Kentucky, the 
other with James S. Jackson, being fought while both were serving in the 
Mexican War. 

Marshall, among his other adventures in Mexico, had a difficulty with 
Cassius M. Clay. Marshall was one day walking, unarmed, through camp, 
when Clay stepped to his tent-door and completely covered him with a 
pistol. Marshall instantly turned his back, and looking over his shoulder at 
Clay, said, '* Shoot away, Cash, but it's got to be a clear case of murder. " 

In 1845 Marshall ran for Congress against Garrett Davis, by whom he 
was beaten, and in 1850, the Mexican War having broken out, he raised a 
company of cavalry, of which he was chosen captain, and which he led to 
the theatre of war. On his return he spent much of his time in Lexington, 
where his friend and kinsman, Dr. Robert J. Breckenridge, was settled as 
pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. For several years they had been 
members of the same bar, which, according to Marshall, they had both 
rather suddenly forsaken, " Bob," as he used to say, " taking to the Bible, 
and I to the bottle ; and the world says I have stuck to my text a good deal 
closer than he has to his.' - ' 



118 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

In 1 85 1 he again represented Woodford County in the Legislature. 
With this term Marshall's career as a Legislator closed. In the civil war 
he took no part. His life's work was nearly done, and his death soon fol- 
lowed. Shortly before his death he met Dr. Breckenridge, and said to him : 
" I have read your book, ' God Objectively Considered,' and I am glad to 
find you have no objection to God." "As one of His vice gerents on 
earth, I can tell you He has very great objections to you," retorted Breck- 
enridge, and went his way. 

Tom Marshall died on the 2 2d of September, 1864, leaving a wife, but 
no children and no fortune. He lived and died poor. He left to posterity 
nothing but the fading memory of his genius. 



PRESIDENT POLK'S CABINET. 

Secretary of State. — James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, appointed March 
6th, 1845. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — Robert I. Walker, of Mississippi, appointed 
March 6th, 1845. 

Secretary of War. — William L. Marcy, of New York, appointed March 
5th- 1845. 

Secretaries of the Navy. — George Bancroft, of Massachusetts, appointed 
March 10th, 1845 ; John T. Mason, of Virginia, appointed September 9th, 
1846. 

Postmaster-General. — Carr Johnson, of Tennessee, appointed March 
5th, 1845. 

Attorneys-General. — John T Mason, of Virginia, appointed March 5th, 
1845 ; Nathan Clifford, of Maine, appointed December 23d, 1846 ; Isaac 
Toucey, of Connecticut, appointed June 21st, 1848. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1848. 

WHIG NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Zachary Taylor of Louisiana. 

For Vice-President. 
Millard Fillmore of New York. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Lewis Cass of Michigan. 

For Vice-President. 
William 0. Butler of Kentucky. 

FREE-SOIL NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Martin Van Buren of New York. 

For Vice-President. 
Charles Francis Adams of Massachusetts 

CONVENTIONS AND NOMINATIONS. 

The Liberty party again met in national convention at Buffalo, in Octo- 
ber, 1847, and nominated John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and Leicester 
King. 

The Liberty League, organized in 1845, met in convention at Auburn, 
New York, in January, 1848, and nominated Gerrit Smith, of New York, 



120 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

and Elihu Burritt, of Massachusetts. Mr. Burritt declined, and C. C. 
Foote, of Michigan, was selected. 

The Democratic National Convention convened at Baltimore on the 2 2d 
of Maw and nominated General Lewis Cass and William O. Butler. 

The Whig party met in national convention at Philadelphia on the 7th 
of June, and nominated General Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore. 

The Free-Soil party held its first convention in Buffalo, on the 9th of 
August, and nominated Martin Van Buren for President and Charles 
Francis Adams for Vice-President. 

I ii Liberty party withdrew the nominations which it had previously 
made, joined in the proceedings of this convention and identified itself 
with this new party in principles and name. 

This- election gave General Taylor 163 electoral votes against 127 for 
Pew is Cass. 



HENRY WINTER DAVIS. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Annapolis, Maryland, August 
1 6th, 1 81 7. His early education began at home under the supervision of 
his father, a clergyman of the Episcopal Church. 

In [837 he graduated at Kenyon College, Ohio, and in October, 1839, 
he entered the University of Virginia, where he pursued a thorough legal 
course, and laid the foundation of the elegant scholarship which distin- 
guished him not less than his legal research and brilliant oratory. 

After completing his legal studies he settled in Alexandria, Virginia, and 
shortly afterward removed to Baltimore. At this early period he was a fre- 
quent contributor to the newspapers on political subjects, many of which 
attracted wide attention. 

In politics he was allied with the Whig party, and took an active part in 
the Scott campaign of 1852. On the defeat and final extinction of the 
Whigs, Mr. Davis adopted the principles of the American party. He was 
elected to a seat in the Thirty -fourth Congress in 1855, where he was con- 
tinued several terms. In the I louse of Representatives he was soon recog- 
nized as one of its ablest debaters. He always commanded the attention 
of Ins auditors by his logical reasoning, his elegant array of facts, the chaste 
but fervid eloquence of his diction, the strength and melody of his voice, 




Richard B. Hubbard. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 848. 1 23 

and his handsome and commanding presence. Mr. Davis was an ardent 
supporter of Mr. Fillmore for the Presidency in 1856 and Mr. Bell in i860. 
Few men, as polished orators, have ranked higher than Henry Winter 
Davis. He died in Baltimore December 30th, 1864, in his forty-eighth 
vear. 



CHARLES SUMNER. 

In 1837 a young lawyer of Boston, twenty-six years old, was described 
by the famous Judge Story as one " giving promise of the most eminent 
distinction in his profession, with extraordinary attainments, literary and 
judicial, and a gentleman of the highest purity and propriety of charac- 
ter. " As a prediction of Charles Sumner's future, these words, remark- 
able as they were, fell short of his brilliant career ; as a tribute to his intel- 
lectual and moral worth, they fitly serve to voice a nation's verdict on one 
of her chief statesmen and scholars. 

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, January 6th, 181 1, of a stock owning 
generations of culture, Charles Sumner was fitted at the Boston Latin 
School for Harvard College. Graduating from the latter in 1830, he pur- 
sued his legal studies under Story, the master of constitutional law. 

Fortified by this training, he visited England, France, and Germany in 
1837, being received in each country with unusual distinction in the high- 
est circles. The years thus passed abroad served to develop his under- 
standing of the law of nations, to add materially to his worldly information 
and address, and to supplement his profound knowledge of the classics, 
with the acquisition of the chief modern languages and their literatures. 

Returning to Boston in 1840, he at first took no active part in politics, 
though voting with the Whigs. Yet his family antecedents pointed him 
toward politics, his father having been High Sheriff of Suffolk County 
and a cousin of his father's a distinguished judge and Governor of the 
State. His studies and predilections pointed in the same direction ; and a 
tall form and commanding presence, a grace of manner and superb vital- 
ity, elegance of diction and force of ideas combined to insure him wel- 
come as a public speaker. An occasion was needed, and it came. 
Prompted by the menacing aspect of affairs between the United States and 
Mexico, he delivered an oration on the 4th of July, 1845. before the 
municipal authorities of Boston, on "The True Grandeur of Nations," 



124 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

denouncing the practice of war and advocating international arbitration. 
This speech, circulated widely in America and Europe, and pronounced 
by Cobden one of the noblest contributions to the cause of peace, was fol- 
lowed in rapid succession by public addresses on kindred themes. 

At length the great question of slavery engaged his attention, and led to 
his oration on " The Anti -Slavery Duties of the Whig Party, "in which he 
declared himself the opponent of slavery on constitutional grounds. His 
watchword was, " Repeal of slavery under the Constitution and laws of the 
Federal Government" It was a bold and courageous step to take, for the 
" Brahmin caste of New England " promised to the youthful orator social 
and political death. But Mr. Sumner, loving the absolute right, a man 
of noble ideas and lofty enthusiasms, only increased his earnest opposition 
to slavery, and left the "Whigs to join the Free-Soil party in 1848. Web- 
ster was in the United States Senate, and upon him Sumner called to earn 
for himself the title of " Defender of Humanity" by opposing the fugitive 
slave law. It was in vain ; but the withdrawal of Mr. Webster into Presi- 
dent Fillmore's Cabinet opened the way to Mr. Sumner's election to the 
Senate. He entered upon his duties as a Senator December 1st, 1851, 
and retained his seat in that capacity till his death, in 1S74. In his first 
important speech in the Senate against the fugitive slave law, he uttered 
the famous political formula, "Freedom National, Slavery Sectional." 
Then came his speech on " The Crime against Kansas," March 19th and 
20th, 1856, and the physical assault upon him by Preston S. Brooks. 
Under medical treatment, more or less, for the next three years, he returned 
to the charge in 1859 in another great speech — " The Barbarism of Sla- 
very' - ' — a speech singularly devoid of personal griefs, and alive only to the 
burning question of the day. 

Upholding Lincoln and his administration, Mr. Sumner throughout the 
civil war opposed all compromise with the upholders of slavery. He early 
advocated emancipation, not only on moral and historical, but on consti- 
tutional grounds. As chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, 
he delivered an elaborate speech. January 9th, 1862, arguing that the seiz- 
ure of Mason and Slidell was unjustifiable by international law. The 
speech went far to reconcile the public mind to the surrender of the Con- 
federate envoys. Subsequent speeches on " Our Foreign Relations" 
;,), " The Case of the Florida" (1864), a eulogy of President Lincoln 
5), on the Thirteenth Amendment and Reconstruction acts, " Our 
claims on England " (1869), ancl " Against the Santo Domingo Treaty" 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 848. 1 25 

(1869) sustained his reputation as a statesman and orator, though the last 
speech, by the offence it gave the Administration, caused his removal, in 
1870, from the chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Relations. 

Supporting Mr. Greeley for the Presidency in 1872, he was nominated 
for Governor of Massachusetts by a convention of " Liberal Republicans" 
and Democrats, but he declined the nomination. 

His last important public acts were an able speech regarding the sale of 
arms to France during the Franco-German War, the promotion of the 
Civil Rights bill, and a resolution to efface from the regimental colors of 
the armv and from the army register the names of the battles won over fel- 
low-citizens in the civil war. This last bill was strongly denounced, and 
led to a vote of censure on Mr. Sumner by the Massachusetts Legislature 
in 1S73. It was rescinded, however, in 1S74, just before his death, which 
occurred suddenly in Washington, March nth, 1S74. 

As a thinker, Mr. Sumner was vigorous and comprehensive. There was 
a tendency in his mind to seek the ideal — he had a capacity for abstractions 
— principles were everything. Consistency marked his public life — the ad- 
vocacy of peace in place of war principles in his oration in 1845, on " The 
True Grandeur of Nations, ' ' was the key-note that held through to his bill 
in 1874, calling for the erasure of the names of battles from regimental 
colors. His integrity of motive, lofty patriotism, and splendid intellectual- 
ity gained for him respectful attention and great influence. 

As an orator he was polished, his arguments being re-enforced by his- 
torical and classical allusions in a very marked degree, though at times 
bordering on pedantry. 



PRESIDENT TAYLOR'S CABINET. 

Secretary of State. — John M. Clayton, of Delaware, appointed March 
7th. 1849. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — -William M. Meredith, of Pennsylvania, 
appointed March 8th, 1849. 

Secretary of War. ■ — George W. Crawford, of Georgia, appointed March 
6th, 1S49. 

Secretary of the Navy. — William B. Preston, of Virginia, appointed 
March Sth, 1849. 



126 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Secretary of the Interior. — Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, appointed March 
7th, 1849. 

Postmaster-General. — Jacob Collamer, of Vermont, appointed March 
7th, 1849. 

Attorney-General. — Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, appointed March 
7th, 1849. 

The Cabinet officers appointed by President Taylor, who died July 9th, 
1850, were all continued by President Fillmore until their successors were 
appointed, as follows : 

Secretaries of State. — Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, appointed July 
20th, 1850 ; Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, appointed November 6th, 
1852. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, appointed July 
23d, 1S50. 

Secretary of War. — Charles M. Conrad, of Louisiana, appointed July 
15th, 1850. 

Secretaries of the Navy. — William A. Graham, of North Carolina, ap- 
pointed July 22d, 1850; John P. Kennedy, of Maryland, appointed July 

22d, 1852. 

Secretary of the Interior. — Alexander H. H. Stuart, of Virginia, ap- 
pointed July 2 2(1, 1850. 

Postmaster-General. — Nathan K. Hall, of New York, appointed July 
20th, 1850 ; Samuel D. Hubbard, of Connecticut, appointed September 
14th, 1852. 

Attorney-General. — John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, appointed July 
20th, 1850. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1852. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire. 

For Vice-President. 
William R. King of Alabama. 

WHIG NOMINEES. 

For President 
Winfield Scott of Virginia. 

For Vice-President. 
William A. Graham of North Carolina. 

FREE-SOIL NOMINEES. 

For President. 
John P. Hale of New Hampshire. 

For Vice-President. 
George W. Julian of Indiana. 

conventions and nominations. 

The Democratic party again met in convention at Baltimore on the Est 
of June, 1852, and nominated Franklin Pierce and William R. King. 

The Whigs held their convention on the 1 6th of June in the same city, 
and nominated General Scott and William A. Graham. 



128 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

The Free-Soil party met in national convention at Pittsburg, August 
nth, and nominated John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and George W. 
Julian, of Indiana, for the offices of President and Vice-President. 

Two hundred and fifty-four electoral votes were cast for Franklin Pierce 
and 42 for General Scott. 



HENRY WARD BEECHER. 

Henry Ward Beecher, son of Lyman Beecher, a noted divine, was born 
in Litchfield, Connecticut, on the 24th of June, 18 13. Mrs. Harriet 
Beecher Stowe, Mr. Beecher's sister, says, in a sketch of his life, that 

Henry Ward was not marked out by the prophecies of partial friends for 
any brilliant future. He had precisely the organization which often passes 
for dulness in early boyhood. He had great deficiency in verbal memory ; 
he was excessively sensitive to praise and blame, extremely diffident, and 
with a power of yearning, undeveloped emotion, which he neither under- 
I nor could express. His utterance was thick and indistinct, partly 
from bashfulness and partly from an enlargement of the tonsils of the 
thn>at. so that in speaking or reading he was with difficulty understood. 
In forecasting his horoscope — had any one taken the trouble then to do it 
—the last success that ever would have been predicted for him would have 
been that of an orator. ' When Henry is sent to me with a message, ' said a 
aunt, ' I always have to make him say it three times. The first time 
I have no manner of an idea more than if he spoke Choctaw ; the second, 
I catch now and then a word ; but the third time I begin to understand.' " 
From that indifferent beginning, Henry Ward Beecher developed into 
" the pulpit orator since the days of Paul." 

Youi r very early in life showed an inclination to defend good 

principles and opinions. "The stand he took in college was from the 
first that of a reformer. He was always on the side of law and order, and 
being one of the most popular fellows in his class, threw the whole weight 
of his popularity in favor of the faculty, rather than against them. He 
and his associates formed a union of merry good fellows, who were to have 
wholesome fun, but to have it only by honorable and permissible means. 
They voted down hazing of students; they voted clown gambling, and 
drinking, and every form of secret vice, and made the class rigidly temper- 
ate and pure. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1852. 1 29 

" The only thing which prevented him from taking the first rank as a 
religious young man was the want of that sobriety and solemnity which 
was looked upon as essential to the Christian character. 

" During his two last college years, Mr. Beecher taught rural schools 
during the long winter vacations. In the controversy then arising through 
the land in relation to slavery, Mr. Beecher from the first took the ground, 
and was willing to bear the name of an Abolitionist. It was a part of the 
heroic element of his nature always to stand for the weak, and he naturally 
inclined to take that stand in a battle where the few were at odds against 
the many." 

Mr. Beecher graduated from Amherst College in 1834, and went to Cin- 
cinnati, whither his father, Dr. Lyman Beecher, had preceded him two 
years, and there entered upon the study of theology at Lane Seminary. 
Finishing his course at that institution, he settled at Lawrenceburg, and 
began the ministry in its broadest sense. His parish was a little town on 
the Ohio River. Here he preached in a small church, and did all the work 
of the parish sexton, making the fires, trimming the lamps, sweeping the 
church, and ringing the bell to call his congregation together. He said : 
" I did all but come to hear myself preach — that they had to do." Mr. 
Beecher was soon invited from Lawrenceburg to Indianapolis, where he 
labored for eight years. 

In this new field Mr. Beecher pursued his theological studies with two 
volumes — the Bible and human nature. He was an intense observer and 
student of men, and no one knows his kind better. Every phase of 
human life is as familiar to him as "an open book." 

In 1847 ^ r ' Beecher was invited to Brooklyn to take charge of Ply- 
mouth Church, and he immediately announced from that pulpit, to all 
whom it might concern, that he considered temperance and anti-slavery a 
part of the gospel of Christ, and should preach them accordingly. During 
the battle inaugurated by Webster's speech of the 7th of March and the 
fugitive slave law, Mr. Beecher preached and visited from store to store, 
holding up the courage of his people to resistance. At this time he car- 
ried this subject through New England and New York, in lyceum 
lectures, and began a course of articles in the Independent, which were 
widely read. It is said that when Calhoun was in his last illness, his secre- 
tary was reading him extracts from Northern papers, and, among others, 
one of Mr. Beecher's entitled " Shall we Compromise ?" in which he fully 
set forth the utter impossibility of reconciling the two conflicting powers of 



130 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

freedom and slavery. "Read that again," said the old- statesman. 
' That fellow understands his subject ; he has gone to the bottom of it. " 

When the battle of the settlement of Kansas was going on, Mr. Beecher 
fearlessly advocated the necessity of their going out armed, and a subscrip- 
tion was raised In his church to supply every family with a Bible and a 
rifle. During the war Mr. Beecher's labors were incessant and well 
chosen, and in his sphere of action no soldier of the Union did better or 
more valiant service. 

In 1S63 he visited Great Britain, with a special view to disabuse the 
public in regard to the issues of the civil war. His speeches in that behalf, 
delivered to vast assemblages in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, 
and other cities, exerted a wide influence in changing popular sentiment, 
which had been strongly in favor of the Southern Confederacy. When the 
war was over, Mr. Beecher immediately advocated the benign doctrine of 
brotherly love and reconciliation between the sections, and his lead in that 
direction and visits to and ministry through the South, was one of the first- 
laid stepping-stones to reconstruction. Since the organization of the Re- 
publican party, Mr. Beecher has been one of its most consistent and stead- 
fast supporters, and one of the most able and eloquent advocates of its 
principles. 



SCHUYLER COLFAX. 

Schuyler Colfax was born in the city of New York on the 23d of March, 
1823. His father, who bore the same Christian name, was an officer of 
one of the New York City banks, and died four months before his son, the 
Speaker, was born. At the age of ten he had received all the school train- 
ing which his widowed mother was able to provide him, and at that tender 
age he was placed in a store, to contribute what he could toward the 
family support. After three years he removed to Indiana with his mother 
and her second husband, a Mr. Matthews, and settled with them in St. 
Joseph County. Here young Colfax for four years again served as clerk in 
the village of New Carlisle, and when he had reached his eighteenth year 
he was appointed deputy county auditor ; and for the better fulfilment of his 
official duties, he removed to the countv town, South Bend, where he has 
! ever since. Here, in this new position, he was enveloped in a polit- 
ical atmosphere which he imbibed freely. He talked and thought, and 




Hugh Judson Kilpatrick. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1852. 133 

began to print his views from time to time in the local newspapers of the 
place. He possessed a happy faculty of dealing fairly and at the same 
time pleasantly with every phase of a political question, and with all sorts 
of men ; and his speeches and writings were regarded father the impartial 
charge of a judge than the utterances of a partisan advocate. In 1S45 ne 
became proprietor and editor of the St. Joseph Valley Register, the local 
paper of South Bend. This was his first venture and if hope had been 
lacking the prospect would have foreboded a sorry future. He was a 
youth of just over twenty-one, and had but two hundred and fifty subscrib- 
ers. But young Colfax had hope, and, what was far more important, re- 
markable tact and capacity for his laborious profession. At the end of the 
first year of his paper he was 81375 in debt. There is a peculiar fatality 
which ever hovers over such enterprises, and its blighting hand had reached 
out for young Colfax's journal ; but with one hand he shielded it from the 
monster's grasp, and with the other he nurtured it to productive life. A 
few years afterward the office was burned down, and the uninsured editor 
was left to begin his business over again. 

" Besides paying well, the Rgister, as conducted by Mr. Colfax, is 
entitled to the much higher praise of having been a useful, interesting, and 
a morally pure paper, always on the side of what is good and right in 
morals and in society." 

Mr. Colfax was a Whig in the days of the Whig party, and on its disso- 
lution he joined the Republican party. His first nomination for Con- 
gress was in 1851, and he was beaten, though only by two hundred 
majority, in a district strongly opposed to him in politics. In 1852 he was 
a delegate to the Whig National Convention' that nominated General Scott, 
and was chosen secretary. 

Mr. Colfax was chosen to the Thirty-fourth Congress by a large major- 
ity, and in that body he showed himself to be a judicious legislator, a ready 
debater, and a fine speaker. It was during this session that Mr. Colfax 
delivered his well-known and powerful speech on the bogus " Laws" of 
Kansas. This speech, a word-for-word quotation of clause after clause of 
this infamous code, accompanied with a plain, sober, and calmly-toned 
explanation of its provisions, produced a very great effect, and was con- 
sidered so able a summary of the case involved that during the Presidential 
campaign of that year a half million copies of it were distributed among 
the voters of the United States. 

On the 7th of December, 1863, Mr. Colfax was elected Speaker of the 



134 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Thirty-eighth Congress, and re-elected Speaker in 1865 and again in 

1867. 

In May, 1868, he was nominated at the Chicago National Republican 
tvention for Vice-President, with General Grant as candidate for Presi- 
dent. This ticket was elected in November following, and on the 4th of 
.March, 1869, he was inaugurated as Vice-President of the United States, 
and took his seat as President of the Senate. Failing in a renomination 
for the same office at the Philadelphia Convention in 1872, he retired to 
private life. 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 

On all the pages of history, there is not related the story of a life which 
is more eventful than that of Frederick Douglass. 

lie was born on Colonel Lloyd's plantation, at Tuckahoe, near Eaton, 
Talbot County, Maryland, about the year 181 7. He says of hisi childhood 
days : " I was seldom whipped, and never severely, by my old master. I 
suffered little from any treatment I received, except from hunger and cold. 
In the heat of summer or cold of winter alike I was kept almost in a state 
of nudity — with nothing but a coarse tow-linen shirt reaching to the knee. 
This I wore night and day. In the daytime I could protect myself pretty 
well by keeping on the sunny side of the house, and in bad weather in the 
corner of the kitchen chimney. The great difficulty was to keep warm at 
night. I had no bed. The pigs in the pen had leaves, and horses in the 
stable had straw, but the children had nothing. In very cold weather I 

nines got down the bag in which corn was carried to the mill, and 

into that. My feet have been so cracked by the frost that the pen with 
which I am writing might be laid in the gashes. Our corn-meal mush was 
] 'laced in a large wooden trough, and the children were called ; and like so 
many pigs they would come, and literally devour the mush. He that ate 

t g( >t the most, and he that was strongest got the best place, and few 
left the trough really satisfied." 

The effect of this on his childish mind is thus told : " As I grew older 

more thoughtful I was more and more filled with a sense of my own 
wretchedness. The cruelty of my mistress, the hunger and cold I suffered, 

the terrible reports of wrong and outrage that filled my ear, together 
with what I almost daily witnessed, led me, when I was but eight or nine 

i old, to wish I had never been born. I was just as well aware of the 



CAMPAIGN OF 1852. 135 

unjust, unnatural, and murderous character of slavery when nine years old 
as I am now. Without any appeal to books, to laws, or to authorities of 
any kind, it was enough to accept God as a Father, to regard slavery as a 
crime. 

When Douglass was ten years of age a great change took place in his 
circumstances. His old master sent him to Baltimore to be a family ser- 
vant in the house of a connection. 

He speaks with great affection of his new mistress. She had never had 
to do with a slave child before, and seemed to approach him with all the 
tender feelings of motherhood. His clothing, lodging, and food were now 
those of a favorite servant. He begged his kind mistress to teach him to 
read, and he tells the result in his own words : 

' The dear woman began the task, and very soon, by her assistance, I 
was master of the alphabet, and could spell words of three or four letters. 

" My mistress seemed almost as proud of my progress as if I had been 
her own child, and supposing that her husband would be as well pleased, 
she made no secret of what she was doing for me. She told him of the 
aptness of her pupil and of her intention to persevere in teaching me. 
Her husband was amazed, and immediately made strenuous objections to 
the plan. He unfolded to her the true philosophy of slavery, and the 
peculiar rules necessary to be observed by masters and mistresses toward 
their human chattels. 

' Learning will spoil the best nigger in the world, ff you learn him 
how to read he will want to know how to write, and this accomplished he 
will run away and leave you. ' 

:t The effect of his words on me was neither slight nor transitory. His 
iron sentences, cold and harsh, sunk into my heart, and stirred up not only 
feelings of rebellion, but awakened within me a slumbering train of vital 
thought." The desire of learning once awakened could not be crushed, 
and although his mistress became jealously anxious to prevent him making 
further progress, he found means to continue the instruction. With a 
spelling-book hid away in his bosom he continued daily to get lessons from 
the street-boys whom he met while going on his errands. At last he made 
money enough to buy secretly a liberty-loving book called " The Colum- 
bian Orator." In its pages young Fred found most inspiring documents. 
He read the great speeches of Sheridan, Lord Chatham, William Pitt, Fox. 
and others, and added much to his limited knowledge of language. 

All the results of learning to read predicted by his master came to pass. 



136 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

He became morose and melancholy, and his mistress showered reproaches 
upon him. He soon began to acquire the art of writing, and studied how 
to form the letters from the painted signs on fences and bill-boards. He 
had various reverses as he grew in age and developed in manliness. He 
was found difficult to manage, and changed from hand to hand like a 
vicious horse. Finally his master made a virtue of necessity, and allowed 
him to hire his own time. He became a caulker in a shipyard, but the work 
was hard, and he determined to escape. He managed to reach New Bed- 
Massachusetts, in safety, and there he took the name of Douglass. 
He married a thrifty and affectionate wife, and became a settled family man. 
He began to attend meetings of the colored people, and was amazed to hear 
them make speeches and to see them draw up resolutions. 

He met William Lloyd Garrison, who took a friendly interest in the 
bright young colored man, and thence his course was upward. He at- 
tended an anti-slavery meeting in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 1841, and 
related his experiences before a great audience. Douglass rapidly became 
an accomplished speaker and writer. He was offered the agency of the 
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, which he accepted, and for four years 
he travelled and lectured throughout New England, meeting with astonish- 
ing success. Few men could mount a platform and deliver an unwritten 
speech with the cultured and moving eloquence of Fred Douglass. In 
1S45 ne published his autobiography, recounting his slave days with touch- 
ing pathos. Soon after he went to Europe, and lectured on the Continent 
with great effect. In 1847 he published a weekly paper in Boston, called 
the North Star. When the war broke out Douglass urged upon Presi- 
dent Lincoln the employment of colored troops, and he greatly assisted in 
filling up those regiments. After the war he applied himself in lecturing 
for lyceums, and his oratory was heard all over the United States. He 
became editor of the New National Era in Washington, and in 1871 he 
was appointed secretary to the Commission to Santo Domingo. Later 
President Grant appointed him one of the Territorial Council of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. In 1872 he was elected a Presidential elector from New 
York State, and was appointed to carry the electoral vote of New York to 
Washington. Later on he was appointed marshal of the Supreme Court of 
the District of Columbia, a position of dignity and profit, which he held 
until President Garfield appointed him Register of the District. 

A few months since Mr. Douglass married Miss Hannah Pitts, a repre- 
sentative of an intelligent and influential family of western New York. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 852. 1 37 



ROBERT C. SCHENCK. 

Robert C. Schenck was born at Franklin, Warren Count}', Ohio, in 
October, 1809. His father, General William C. Schenck, having emigrated 
from Huntington, Long Island, was one of the earliest settlers of the 
Miami Valley. Very early in lite young Schenck showed promise of that 
ability to fight hard in a just cause, which afterward made him distin- 
guished among American legislators. 

In 1824 he entered Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, as a sopho- 
more, and after three years of hard study he graduated, with the first honors 
of his class. In 1829 he commenced the study of law at Oxford, and 
subsequently entered the office of the distinguished orator and lawyer, 
" Tom" Corwin, with whom he finished his legal course. He was 
admitted to the bar in his twenty-first year. 

With a sealed letter of introduction from Mr. Corwin, ' ' To whom it 
might concern, ' ' he set out in quest of a location. He first went to 
Dayton, and presenting his letter to Hon. Joseph H. Crane, and that 
lawyer needing assistance, gave him a share in his business. With such a 
favorable start, he made rapid progress to eminence in his profession. 

In 1838 he was made the Whig candidate for the Legislature, and made 
an active personal canvas ; but despite every effort, he was defeated by a 
small majority. Three years later he again consented to become the Whig 
candidate for the same office, and was elected. At this time he had be- 
come known throughout his portion of the State as one of the ablest public 
speakers who discussed political or other questions. His style was particu- 
larly noticeable then, as in after years, for conciseness, clearness, vigor, and 
power of invective. There were not a few persons who held that in all 
these qualities he was the equal, if not the superior, of his great instructor, 
the renowned Thomas Corwin. This enviable reputation he had gained 
principally through his connection with the " log-cabin and hard cider 
campaign" of 1840. 

General Harrison, the Whig candidate for the Presidency, he had known 
from boyhood, and it was a high compliment paid to his abilities at that 
time to receive an invitation from Harrison himself to take the stump in 
advocacy of the Whig cause. With Harrison, the Presidential candidate, 
and many other distinguished speakers he attended the memorable mass 



138 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

meeting held at Fort Meigs, and to this day it is recalled as one of the 
most remarkable political gatherings the county has ever known. From 
twenty-five to thirty thousand people came to attend it. They rode, 
walked, and drove in from all the country around, and camped out, lived 
in wagons, and slept upon the ground as they could, feeling themselves 
fully rewarded for all their trouble by the speeches of their candidate and 
his friends. 

Arriving at the capital of Ohio after that election, he found that his 
reputation had gone before him, and that he was confidentially expected to 
assume the leadership of the Whigs in the Legislature. This responsi- 
bility he did not shirk, and so admirably did he manage the party's forces 
that he more than justified all estimates of him as a skilful leader. After 
Mr. Harrison's inauguration he tendered young Schenck the District 
Attorneyship of Ohio ; but this office he declined. 

Mr. Schenck was returned to the Legislature the following year, and 
after completing two terms in that body, he was elected to Congress, where 
he was kept continuously for eight years. During his Congressional ser- 
vice he was engaged in the most important as well as exciting and interest- 
ing scenes which occurred in the capital, and during this period a warm 
and intimate friendship was formed between him and Mr. Webster, which 
survived until transmuted to veneration on the death of the latter. 

In 1852 he was appointed by President Fillmore Minister to Brazil. 
Returning to his native country in 1854, he found that the anti-slavery 
movement had made extraordinary progress, and heat once espoused the 
principles of the Republican party, then in its infancy. In September, 
1859, ne addressed a large meeting in Dayton, and it is memorable that in 
his speech on that occasion he was first to propose Abraham Lincoln for 
the Presidency of the United States. In the course of his address he said : 
" If the Republican party of this country — if the thinking, liberty loving 
men of this country want an honest — sensible man to lead them in the 
coming campaign, they cannot do better than nominate the distinguished 
gentleman from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln." In after years Mr. Lincoln 
frequently related this incident, and declared that Mr. Schenck was the first 
man who had in a public address named him for the Presidency. Subse- 
quent to the Dayton speech, in the Chicago Convention, Mr. Schenck was 
•ly instrumental in securing the nomination of Lincoln, and in the cam- 
n which followed he took the stump at .Mr. Lincoln's personal request. 

The war came, and the veteran of many hotly contested political battles 



CAMPAIGN OF 1852. 1 39 

was among the first to offer his services to his country. He appeared at 
the capital before the echo of the fire on Fort Sumpter had died away, and 
tendered his services to the President. Mr. Lincoln said to him : " Schenck, 
can you fight?" " I don't know, sir, but I can try," was the character- 
istic reply. "And I am sure you will succeed," said the President; 
" you have it in your blood, and I am going to give you a chance to try. 
You shall be made a brigadier-general." 

How well General Schenck verified the President's predictions, the fol- 
lowing letter illustrates : 

"War Department, Washington City. September 18. 1862. 

" My dear sir : No official act has been performed by me with more 
pleasure than the just tribute to your ability and patriotism by the enclosed 
appointment to the rank of major-general, for gallant and meritorious 
service to your country. It is my hope your health may soon permit you 
to accept a command befitting the rank. My regret for the painful suffer- 
ing you now endure from the wound received on the field of battle is 
enhanced by the need the Government has at this moment for your service. 
With sincere regard, I am your friend, 

" Edwin M. Stanton. 

" To Major-General Schenck. " 

In December, 1863, General Schenck was again elected to Congress, 
when he resigned his commission in the army. He held a seat in the 
House of Representatives till his appointment, in 1870, by President Grant, 
to be United States Minister to England. At the Court of St. James he 
remained five years. Returning to America in 1876, he declined a re- 
nomination for Congress, and sought the repose which his feeble health 
demanded. 



PRESIDENT PIERCE'S CABINET 

Secretary of State. — William L. Marcy, of New York, appointed March 
7th, 1853. 

Secretary of the Treasury- — James Guthrie, of Kentucky, appointed 

March 7th, 1853. 



140 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Secretary of War. — Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, appointed March 
7th, 1S53. 

Secretary of the Navy. — James C. Dobbin, of North Carolina, appointed 
March 7th, 1853. 

Secretary of the Interior. — Robert McClelland, of Michigan, appointed 
March 6th, 1853. 

Postmaster-General. — James Campbell, of Pennsylvania, appointed 
March 7th, 1853. 

Attorney- General. — Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, appointed March 
7th, 1853. 




ROSCOE CONKLING. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1856. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. 

For Vice-President. 
John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
John C. Fremont of California. 

For Vice-President. 
William L. Dayton of New Jersey. 

AMERICAN OR KNOW-NOTHING NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Millard Fillmore of New York. 

For Vice-President. 
Andrew J. Donelson of Tennessee. 

conventions and nominations. 

The Democratic National Convention, at Cincinnati, June 2d. nomi- 
nated James Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge. 

The Republican party, at its first national convention, held at Philadel- 



144 11IE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

phia on the 17th of June. 1856, nominated John C. Fremont and Wdliam 
L Dayton. 

The American or Know-Nothing party met in national convention at 
Philadelphia February 221I, 1856, and nominated Millard Fillmore and 
Andrew I. Donelson. The dissatisfied minority rejected the platform 
pted at this convention, and under the name of North Americans held 
a convention at New York on the 12th of June following, and nominated 
Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, and W. F. Johnson, of Pennsyl- 
vania. 

The remnant ol Whigs and the Silver drays met in national convention 
ialtimore on the 17th of September, and indorsed the American nomi- 

electoral count following this election gave Buchanan 174 votes, 
General Fremont, 114, and Millard Fillmore, 8. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

In a humble cabin, standing on a knoll near the south fork of Nolin 
.. Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln, the son of poor and uneducated par- 
was born on February 12th, 1809. When only eight years of age 
he was taken by his parents to a new home in what is now Spencer County, 
Indiana. There he grew up, in the midst of a wild region, with few edu- 
cational advantages. Me once wrote of himself, that on coming of age 
" somehow I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three, but that 
was all." All that he afterward acquired he "picked up from time to 
time under the pressure of necessity." 

n hand, rail-splitter, clerk in a country store, captain of volunteers 
in the Black Hawk War — all these things were his educators at a time of 
life when more favored young men are idling through the university. At 
twenty-three he returned to New Salem, Illinois, with considerable popu- 
larity among his neighbors by reason of his brief military career. 

About this time he made his first speech in public before the New Salem 

Literary Society. Tall, awkward, with his hands thrust deep into his 

he stood before the little assemblage of his neighbors, who were 

ly smiling in anticipation of one of the humorous stories for which, 

:nds, he was famous. But he surprised them all with a keen 



CAMPAIGN OF 1856. 145 

and forcible argument, instead of flippant jokes. The State election was 
at hand, and admiring friends persuaded him to be a candidate for the 
Legislature. He made several short speeches on the stump in Sangamon 
County, in one of which he said : " My politics are short and sweet, like 
the old woman's dance. I am in favor of a national bank. I am in favor 
of the internal-improvement system and a high protective tariff. These are 
my sentiments and political principles." He was defeated, but received 
the whole vote of his precinct with three exceptions. But he had the 
satisfaction of being sent to the Legislature at the next and three succeed- 
ing triennial elections. This was the beginning of his public career. 
Thirty years more of active life remained to him, and in that time the crude 
stump-speaker of the Sangamon developed into the almost unequalled 
orator of Gettysburg. 

In the campaign of 1844 Lincoln took a notable part, laboring for the 
success of his ideal statesman, Henry Clay. He engaged in joint debates, 
which excited popular feeling in Illinois and Indiana. The subsequent 
defeat of his candidate was a severe disappointment. 

As the only Whig member from Illinois, Lincoln entered the Thirtieth 
Congress. After making his first speech he wrote to a friend : " I find 
speaking here and elsewhere about the same thing. I was about as badly 
scared, and no worse, as I am when I speak in court." 

While gaining fame as a public man, Mr. Lincoln was earning his bread 
as a lawyer. His powers as a debater and speaker were not lost at the 
bar. Judge Drummond once said of him : ''I have no hesitation in say- 
ing that he was one of the ablest lawyers I have ever known. If he was 
forcible before a jury, he was equally so with the court. . . . Let him 
be thoroughly aroused — let him feel that he was right, and that some prin- 
ciple was involved in his course — and he would come out with an earnest- 
ness of conviction, a power of argument, and a wealth of illustration that I 
have never seen surpassed. ' ' 

One of the most remarkable •campaigns in which Lincoln took part was 
in 1858, when he challenged and engaged Stephen A. Douglas in a series 
of joint debates in Illinois. All the political questions of the day were dis- 
cussed, but especially slavery. Douglas was at that time one of the lead- 
ing debaters in the United States Senate, whom the giants of that body had 
faded to discomfit. Lincoln's friends feared for him in the contest, but he' 
held his own against the Little Giant. It has been said by a competent 
political observer: "Lincoln was candid, cool, truthful, logical, philo- 



I46 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

sophical— never betrayed into an unfair statement. Douglas carried away 
the most popular applause, but Lincoln made the deeper and more lasting 
impression. These debates made Douglas Senator and Lincoln Presi- 
dent." 

His reputation as an orator spread throughout the country. In Octo- 
ber, 1859, he was flattered by receiving an invitation to speak in New York 
City. He accepted, on condition that it might be a political speech, and 
set the date far ahead, in order that he might make thorough preparation. 
It is said that no effort of his life cost him so much labor as this one. In 
February, i860, he went to New York to fulfil his engagement. He was 
surprised and embarrassed to find an immense audience assembled in 
iper Institute to hear him. The poet Bryant introduced him as " an 

inent citizen of the West, hitherto known to you only by reputation." 
In low tones he began his great speech on the slavery question, and as he 
proceeded gained such confidence and became so eloquent that the next 
dav the Tribune said : "The tones, the gestures, the kindling eye, and 
the mirth-provoking look defy the reporter's skill. No man ever before 
made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York audience." 

As President, Lincoln made two speeches, which have won him his 
greatest fame as an orator— the short address delivered at the laying of the 
corner-stone of the soldiers' monument at Gettysburg, and his second in- 
augural, concluding with that eloquent sentence : " With malice toward 
none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see 
the right, let us finish the work we are in— to bind up the nation's wounds, 
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his 
orphans; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting 
peace among ourselves and with all nations." 

A few weeks later the bullet of an assassin closed his eloquent lips for- 
ever, and the " nation's wounds" for a time gaped afresh. 



STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 

ephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln— rivals for the same woman's 
hand and heart, for a United States Senatorship, and for the Presidency, 
political foes for a generation, political friends at the last in the hour of 
their country's peril. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1856. 1 47 

Douglas was a Vermont boy, the sun of a physician, who left him 
fatherless when two months old ; fifteen years he spent on a farm with his 
widowed mother, and then apprenticed himself to a cabinet-maker ; hard 
work impaired his health, and, the opportunity offering, he spent several 
years in study. In 1833, when only twenty years of age, he set out for 
the West to finish his law studies, to support himself meanwhile, and lay 
the foundations for his great career. He reached Winchester, Illinois, 
with thircy-seven and a half cents in his pocket, acted as clerk to an auc- 
tioneer for a few days, opened a school, which was successful, pursued his 
law studies in the evenings, and within a year was admitted to practice. 
From that time his course was rapidly upward. Before he was twenty-two 
he was elected by the Legislature of Illinois Attorney-General of the State. 
Within a year he was elected to the Lower House of the Legislature, and 
was its youngest member ; and in 1S38, having just reached the required 
age of twenty- five, he ran for Congress on the Democratic ticket, and was 
only defeated by five votes. He, however, became a member of that body 
in 1843, and held the office until transferred to the Senate, in 1847. He 
was still a Senator at his death, in 186 1. 

As a campaign speaker in 1840, when Harrison and Van Buren were 
candidates for the Presidency, Douglas made a great impression. Isaac M. 
Arnold, an Illinois Congressman, once wrote of him : " He spoke always 
with great fluency and power. He seized the strong points of his case, 
and enforced them with great vigor. Quick and ready to seize the weak 
points of his antagonist, he would drive .them home with strong and well- 
applied blows, never being disposed to yield an advantage which he had 
once obtained. " 

The Compromise measures of 1850 were supported by Mr. Douglas, and 
on returning to his home in Illinois he found his course vehemently as- 
sailed. On October 24th he made a great speech at Chicago in his own 
defence. In it he laid down the principle which, then and thereafter, 
guided him in the slavery agitation — that " every people ought to possess 
the right of framing and regulating their own internal concerns and domes- 
tic institutions in their own way. These things are all confided by the 
Constitution to each State to decide for itself, and I know of no reason why 
the same principle should not be extended to the territories." 

During the campaign of 1852 Douglas and Lincoln, now leaders of rival 
parties, crossed swords in debate. Douglas took the stump for Pierce, 
speaking in twenty-eight States. His first speech was made at Richmond, 



I48 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Virginia, an d was scattered throughout the Union, but especially in his 
own State of Illinois. Lincoln felt called upon to answer it in a speech at 
Springfield. One of his biographers admits that " none of his public per- 
formances was more unworthy of its really noble author than this one." 
But these two were to meet later in no unequal contest. 

One of the greatest debates in which Douglas ever took part was in the 
Senate, in 1854, when he introduced the Kansas-Nebraska bill, repealing 
the Missouri Compromise, and probably hastening the civil war by a genera- 
tion. Douglas made the opening speech. He was his party's idol, and in 
his physical and intellectual prime, possessing all the qualities of a great 
popular leader. A writer on that contest says : " He brought to the ac- 
complishment of his object, in the passage of his bill, his vast influence, 
his indomitable energy, and unyielding determination. His speech on the 
hill was able and eloquent, but bitter, defiant, and abusive." When he 
returned to Illinois, after the passage of the bill, he was greeted with a 
storm of indignation. 

At the State fair in Springfield, a great crowd assembled to hear his de- 
fence. He was confident and arrogant, but spoke with all his great abil- 
ity, to an unsympathetic audience. Lincoln was present, and on the fol- 
lowing day replied in a great speech, which aroused the audience to bound- 
less enthusiasm, (loaded by their cheers and his own discomfiture, Doug- 
las sprang to the platform, asserting that he had been abused, but "in a 
ctly courteous manner." He spoke several hours, but, it is said, 
without his usual success. Soon after, at Peoria, the two men met again 
in dehate, and again did Lincoln carry the audience with him. 

The great joint debate of Douglas and Lincoln, in 1858, has already 
been alluded to in the preceding sketch of Lincoln. " Great political 
parties," says one writer, " paused to watch its progress, and looked with 
eager solicitude upon every movement of the champions." The style of 
Douglas was "hold, defiant, aggressive, vigorous. He was fertile in re- 
sources, terrible in denunciation, familiar with political history . . . and 
unquestionably the most formidable man in the nation on the stump." 
The people were with Lincoln, as shown by the total vole in the State, but 
the Legislature returned Douglas to the Senate. 

When, a few years later, both were candidates for the Presidency, the 

: the country declared for Lincoln. The Union was threatened. 

iuglas threw aside his political prejudices for the sake of his 

itry. He had an interview with President Lincoln, in which he as- 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 856. 149 

sured him that he was fully prepared to sustain the Government and its 
head in the exercise of all constitutional functions to preserve the Union. 
At Springfield and Chicago he made speeches upholding the President. 
" There can be no neutrals in this war," he said, " only patriots or 
traitors. 

A month later he was on his death-bed, and used his ebbing strength to 
dictate a letter urging patriotic men to sustain the Union, the Constitution, 
the Government, and the flag. On June 3d, 1861, he died, his last cohe- 
rent utterances being a wish for his country's honor and the defeat of her 
enemies. 



ANSON BURL1NGAME. 

Anson Burlingame was born in New Berlin, Chenango Countv, New 
York, on the 14th of November, 1820, and died in St. Petersburg, Russia, 
on the 23d of February, 1870. When Anson was three years old his 
father, who was a farmer, removed his family to Seneca County, Ohio, 
where they lived ten years, leaving in the year 1833 for a farm at Detroit, 
and again moving, two years later, to another farm at Branch, Michigan. 
In 1837 Anson entered the University of Michigan, and six years later 
went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the purpose of studying law at Har- 
vard University, where he was graduated in the year 1846. He began the 
practice of the law in Boston, and a year or two later was well known as 
an active member and a popular orator of the Free-Soil party, which had 
just come into existence. 

In the year 1848 he acquired a wide reputation as a public speaker, sup- 
porting Van Buren and Adams in the campaign of that year. 

Massachusetts elected him to the Senate in 1852, and in 1853 he served 
as a member of the State Constitutional Convention, being elected by the 
town of Northborough, although he lived in Cambridge. 

He joined the American party on its formation in 1S54, and was in that 
year elected by it to the Thirty-fourth Congress. In the following year he 
co-operated in the formation of the Republican party, to which he steadily 
adhered, and was a most hearty supporter. In Congress he bore himself 
with courage and address, and was recognized as one of the ablest debaters 
on the anti-slavery side of the House. For the severe terms in which he 
denounced the assault committed upon the person of Senator Charles 



150 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Sumner by Preston S. Brooks, in 1856, he was challenged by Brooks. 
He promptly accepted the challenge, and named rifles as the weapons to 
be used, and Navy Island, just above Niagara Falls, as the place of fight- 
ing. To the latter proposition Mr. Brooks objected, alleging that, in 
order to meet his opponent in Canada, in the then excited state of public 
feeling, he would have to expose himself to popular violence in passing 
through " the enemy's country," as he called the Northern States. The 
manner in which Mr. Burlingame conducted himself greatly raised him in 
the estimation of his friends and of his party, although the matter presently 
fell through ; and on his return to Boston at the end of his term, he was 
received with distinguished public honors. He was re-elected to the 
Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses ; but failing, after an animated 
nl close contest, to be returned to the Thirty-seventh, his legislative 
career ended in March, 1861. He was immediately appointed by President 
Lincoln Minister to Austria ; but that government declining to receive in 
a diplomatic capacity a man who had spoken often and eloquently in favor 
of Hungarian independence, and had moved in Congress the recognition 
of Sardinia as a first-class power, Mr. Burlingame was then sent as ambas- 
sador to China. In 1865 he returned to the United States, intending to 
n his office, but he was so strongly urged by the Secretary of State to 
resume his functions for the purpose of carrying forward important projects 
and negotiations which he had himself initiated, that he finally consented. 
When, in the year 1S67, he announced his intention of returning home, the 
at of the empire, Prince Kung, offered him the appointment of special 
ambassador to the United States and the great European powers for the 
purpose of framing treaties of amity with those nations — an honor never 
before conferred on a foreigner. This position Mr. Burlingame accepted. 
In the year 1S68 he went to England, and from thence to France, Den- 
mark, Sweden, Holland, and Prussia, and was most favorably received in 
all these countries. Reaching St. Petersburg early in the year 1S70, he 
became a victim to pneumonia, dying after an illness of only a few days. 




Wade Hampton. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 856. I 53 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

William H. Seward was born at Florida, Orange County, New York, on 
the 1 6th day of May, 1801. His father was a physician and merchant, 
who, after accumulating a moderate fortune, was appointed judge of one 
of the inferior courts. 

At a very early age William exhibited a fondness for books, and com- 
mitted a most unusual offence by running away from home to attend 
school. At the age of nine years he was sent to Farmer's Hall Academy, 
in Goshen, which had numbered among its pupils Noah Webster and 
Aaron Burr. 

He made rapid progress in that institution, and in 18 16 he entered 
Union College, from which he graduated with high honors, though six 
months of his senior year he spent in teaching in the State of Georgia. 

After graduating he commenced the study of law in New York City, and 
completed his course with Ogden Hoffman and John Duer at Goshen, and 
was admitted to the bar in 1822. In the following year he removed to 
Auburn, and formed a partnership with Judge Miller, whose daughter he 
married in 1824. 

As a lawyer he soon became distinguished for originality of thought, in- 
dependence of action, and an industrious devotion to his profession that 
brought him a large practice and high reputation. 

Mr. Seward's mind early led him to a consideration of political subjects. 
His father was a conspicuous Jeffersonian Republican, and his natural 
instincts, as well as his early education, led him to adopt the same politi- 
cal principles. In 1S24 he was selected, by a Republican county conven- 
tion, to prepare the address for the occasion, although scarcely old enough 
to vote. In several orations at this early period of his life the same fervent 
devotion to the cause of liberty was manifested which ever afterward marked 
his public career. In 1827 he appeared as the champion of the struggling 
Greeks, and by his youthful eloquence secured large contributions to the 
fund raised in this country for their defence. One of the largest political 
conventions that had ever assembled in the State of New York was held at 
Utica in 1828, composed of young men favorable to the election of John 
Quincy Adams to the Presidency. Mr. Seward presided over this conven- 



154 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

tion with great ability. The same year he was offered a nomination for 
member of Congress, but declined the honor. 

The anti-Masonic paity was at this time rising into temporary and local 
importance, and Mr. Seward and his friends affdiated themselves with it, 
believing that it afforded the best position for a successful resistance to the 
national and State administrations which he opposed. 

By this party Mr. Seward was elected a State Senator, in 1830, by a 
large majority, although his district had, the preceding year, given a large 
majority to the opposing party's candidate. Not yet thirty years old, he 
entered the Senate, and at the same time became, ex-officio, a judge in the 
highest court of the State, and the peer of men venerable in years and dis- 
tinguished for talent and experience. 

In 1S34 Mr. Seward was nominated for Governor, but was defeated by 
William L. Marcy, although in every county he ran ahead of his ticket. 
Among the charges brought against him in this and the subsequent success- 
ful canvass was that of being " a young man." But a little over thirty, 
he had aspired to an office which had thus far only been held by the ablest 
and ripest statesmen in the State. 

In 1838 he again ran for the office of Governor, and defeated his oppo- 
nent, the distinguished Governor Marcy, by ten thousand majority. Dur- 
ing the canvass he spoke in all sections cf the State, and the revolution in 
politics which then occurred, and which assumed from the circumstances a 
national importance, was largely attributed to his exertions. He was re- 
elected Governor in 1840, but declined to be a candidate in 1S42, and 
retired from the office on the 1st of January, 1843. 

The administration of Governor Seward was, in many respects, the most 
remarkable of any in the history of the Empire State ; and many wise and 
thoughtful statesmen regarded it as more influential in shaping the political 
issues which followed in the next twenty years, than any other event of 
that and subsequent periods. During his administration occurred the anti- 
rent difficulties ; the enlargement of the Erie Canal, largely the result of 
his foresight and energetic advocacy ; the eradication of the laws for im- 
prisonment for debt, and every vestige of slavery from the statute books ; 
the reformation of the penitentiary system, and those reforms in the sever- 
ity of criminal sentences which betokened the dawning of an era of greater 
humanity : the promotion of the agricultural interests of the State ; the 
creation and fostering of normal schools, and the extension of the privileges 
of the public schools to all classes. But pre-eminently was his adminis- 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 856. 1 55 

tration known for its action relative to slavery. In 1S44 Mr. Seward made 
political addresses in all sections of the State for Mr. Clay, though he did not 
favor his nomination. The greater part of Mr. Seward's time after leaving 
the executive chair of the State, to 1849, was devoted to his profession, and it 
was during this period that he acquired his great fame as a lawyer and took 
part in some of the most notable cases in judicial annals. Among them 
may be mentioned the case of James Fenimore Cooper against Horace 
Greeley for libel in the Tribune, in which he appeared for the defendant. 
The case of William Freeman, indicted for the murder of the Van Nest 
family, in which he appeared for the accused, resulted in a verdict of 
insanity. 

In 1 848 he warmly supported the election of General Taylor, and de- 
claimed through the canvass with unusual energy. It was during that 
campaign, though not the first time, that he announced his idea, since so 
widely known and so often discussed, of " the antagonistical elements of 
society in America— Freedom and Slavery" — and which was subsequently 
formulated by him into that pithy expression, " the irrepressible con- 
flict. " 

In 1849 Mr. Seward was elected to the United States Senate. He was 
the friend of General Taylor, and that President extended to him full con- 
fidence. The nomination of General Scott, in 1852, met Mr. Seward's 
hearty approval, and again he advocated throughout his State and in other 
sections of the Union the principles of the Whig party and the election of 
its candidates. Notwithstanding the election resulted in the overwhelming 
defeat of the Whigs, Mr. Seward, undismayed by the disaster, resumed his 
place in the Senate with his characteristic calmness and assiduity. In Feb- 
ruary, 1855, Mr. Seward was re-elected to the Senate by a large majority, 
against the determined opposition of both the American and Democratic 
parties. The nomination of General Fremont for the Presidency by the 
Republican party in 1856 was a serious disappointment to many of Mr. 
Seward's friends ; but he manifested no disappointment, and entered upon 
the canvass with great zeal and energy. The Republicans were defeated, 
but not demoralized, and under Mr. Seward's leadership in the Senate they 
gained strength and influence for the more desperate conflict soon to follow. 

Early in 1S60 it seemed likely that the Republican party — strong and 
united — would reward the great and able statesman for his years of devotion 
to the principles of which it was an embodiment, to a nomination for the 
Presidency ; and while in the Chicago Convention of that vear he was the 



156 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

leading candidate, yet other considerations were thought to justify, and 
even render imperative, the nomination of Abraham Lincoln, and Mr. 
Seward gracefully yielded what proved his last opportunity of becoming the 
nominee for that high office. 

In 1 86 1 he was called into Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet as Secretary of State, 
in which he conducted the delicate and arduous duties connected with for- 
eign affairs, dining the whole of the civil war, with marked industry, sagac- 
ity, and Mi* cess, 

The war ol secession had been begun for the purpose of establishing an 
empire, of which the corner-stone was to be slavery— an empire built of the 
tuins of the Republic. Upon this great and exciting topic and its just 
solution Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward were united, and it was fortunate for 
the President and the country that such an able prime-minister was at the 
head of the Cabinet. 

In the spring of 1S65 Mr. Seward was thrown from his carriage, and 
while lying in his bed in a crippled state, on the 14th of April, 1S65, the 
assassin Paine entered his room, dangerously wounded his son, and with a 
poniard inflicted wounds upon him, which were at first believed to be 
fatal, but from which he slowly recovered. 

He continued in office under Andrew Johnson, when he conducted the 
negotiations by which the United States purchased from Russia those terri- 
tories in North America which are now called Alaska. In dissonance with 
nearly the whole of the Republican party he sustained President Johnson 
in his opposition to the reorganization measures adopted by Congress. 

Late in the summer of 1S70, notwithstanding his feeble health, he 
began a tour around the world, visiting Southern Europe, Turkey, Pales- 
tine, Egypt, India, China, and Japan. He was everywhere received with 
demonstrations of profound respect throughout his journey, and after his 
return home he superintended the preparation of a work descriptive of his 
travels. The venerable statesman died at his home in Auburn on the 10th 
of October, 1872. 



PRESIDENT BUCHANAN'S CABINET. 

Secretaries of State. —Lewis Cass, of Michigan, appointed March 6th, 

- ; Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, appointed December 17th, i860. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. —Howell Cobb, of Georgia, appointed 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 856. I 57 

March 6th, 1857 ; Philip F. Thomas, of Maryland, appointed December 
12th, i860 ; John A. Dix, of New York, appointed January nth, 1861. 

Secretaries of War.— John B. Floyd, of Virginia, appointed March 5th, 
1857 ; Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, appointed December 31st, 1861. 

Secretary of the Navy. — Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, appointed March 
6th, 1857. 

Secretary of the Interior. — Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, appointed 
March 5th, 1857. 

Post?nasters-Generals. — Aaron V. Brown, of Tennessee, appointed 
March 6th, 1857 ; Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, appointed March 14th, 
1859 ; Horatio King, of Maine, appointed February 12th, 1861. 

Attorneys-General. — Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, appointed 
March 5th, 1857 ; Edwin M. Stanton, of Ohio, appointed December 31st, 
i860. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

CAMPAIGN OF i 860. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. 

For Vice-President. 
Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. 

For Vice-President. 
Joseph Lane of Oregon. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Stephen A. Douglas 6f Illinois. 

For Vice-President. 
Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia. 

CONSTITUTIONAL UNION NOMINEES. 

For President. 
John Bell of Tennessee. 

For Vice-President. 
Kuward Everett of Massachusetts. 



CAMPAIGN OF i860. I 59 



CONVENTIONS AND NOMINATIONS. 

The Democratic National Convention met at Charleston, South Carolina, 
on the 23d of April, i860. Party history records few more memorable 
events. All the States were represented. A majority and two minority 
reports were presented by the committee on resolutions. The convention 
adopted the principal minority report, whereupon the delegations from 
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, and portions from Arkansas, Louis- 
iana, North and South Carolina withdrew from the convention. Balloting 
for candidates then began, but after fifty-seven had been cast without a 
selection, the convention adjourned to meet in Baltimore on the 18th of 
June. The withdrawing delegates decided to meet in Richmond on the 
nth of June. 

At Baltimore it was found there were contesting delegations from several 
States. The subject was referred to the committee on credentials, which 
made three reports. The convention adopted the majority report, when 
the Charleston scene was re-enacted, and the entire delegations of Califor- 
nia, Delaware, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, and parts of Ken- 
tucky, Maryland, and Massachusetts withdrew. Stephen A. Douglas and 
Herschel V. Johnson were then given the nominations for President and 
Vice-President. The delegates who withdrew from this convention met at 
the Maryland Institute, in Baltimore, on the 28th of June, and nominated 
John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane. 

A " Constitutional Union" convention from twenty States met at Balti- 
more, May 9th, i860, and nominated John Bell and Edward Everett for 
the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. 

The Republican National Convention assembled at Chicago on the 1 6th 
of May, delegates being present from all the free States, and from Dela- 
ware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. Abiaham Lincoln was 
nominated for the Presidency on the third ballot, receiving 354 out of 466 
votes ; his principal competitors being William H. Seward, Salmon P. 
Chase, and Edward Bates. 

The November election gave Lincoln 180 electoral votes ; Breckinridge. 
72 ; Douglas, 12, and John Bell, 39. 



l6o THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 

It is a mooted question whether peculiar eras in the world's history pro- 
duce and develop men having the special character, traits, and genius 
needed for the times, or are themselves produced by men who stamp their 
individualities upon the generations in which they live. Whether one or 
the other or neither of these theories be correct, it will not be denied that 
few eras have been better calculated to waken the latent eloquence of a 
people and produce a generation of orators of the loftiest type than that 
which brought the Republican party into existence. The breath of life was 
breathed into its nostrils by a theme, an issue, a purpose as grand and in- 
spiring as ever agitated a race, shook a nation to its foundations, or nerved 
men to battle with all their might for a sublime abstract principle. The 
voices that attacked the institution of slavery and waged upon it a relent- 
less warfare till its chains were broken and four millions of men had been 
lifted from bondage into freedom, were inspired by that depth and earnest- 
ness of feeling which is the sole source of all true eloquence. The genera- 
tion that compassed the destruction of slavery in the United States was 
fertile in men made eloquent by the times and the theme, and not a few of 
them have left specimens of oratory which the world will not allow to be 
forgotten, but which will be cherished among the English classics so long 
as that tongue continues to be spoken or read. 

Of the orators who bore a conspicuous part in the first Presidential cam- 
paign of the Republican party few are left to do battle still ; but of those few, 
one of the most accomplished, steadfast, efficient, and popular is George 
William Curtis. Coming upon the political stage with all the enthusiasm, 
earnestness, daring, and attractions of youth in the Buchanan and Fremont 
campaign in 1856, he has borne a conspicuous and influential part in every 
c paign since, and has wielded a potent voice in the councils of the Re- 
publican party from its birth to the present time. 

Mr. Curtis was born in Providence, Rhode Island, February 24th, 1824, 
though a direct descendant from one of the first settlers of Worcester, Mas- 
sachusetts, from which place his father moved to Providence. His mother 
was the daughter of James Burrill, who was elected Attorney-General of 
Rhode Island in 1797, at the age of twenty-five, held that office for fifteen 
years, then became Chief justice of the State, from which office, after 




Benjamin F. Butler. 



CAMPAIGN OF i860. 163 

about one year's service, he passed to that of United States Senator, in 
which he died at Washington, in 1820, at the age of forty-eight. 

Mr. Curtis's school days were passed chiefly in a boarding-school at 
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and under a private tutor in New York, to 
which city his father moved in 1839. It being his father's design that he 
should lead a mercantile career, he was placed in a German importing 
house in New York at the age of fifteen. But the life and occupation that 
the mercantile house held out to him did not absorb his ambition or inter- 
est. He devoted much time to reading and thinking about what he read, 
and found in this the mistress whom he served with most heart and interest. 
In thus following the bent of his own mind, he became interested in the 
Brook Farm socialistic experiment at West Roxbury, Massachusetts. This 
was an association of idealists or transcendentalists, started by a score or so 
of men and women, many of whom have left their " footprints on the 
sands of time' ' by pursuits which they followed after that short-lived experi- 
ment was abandoned. The aim was a reorganization of society upon 
theories differing somewhat from Fourierism, though differing but little 
from it in its practical working and social life. Hawthorne's " Blithedale 
Romance," though not a description of the society, was founded upon or 
suggested by his experience as a member of the Brook Farm phalanstery, 
where he met the lady who became his wife. Mr. Curtis, with an elder 
brother, joined this society in 1842, and remained a year and a half, study- 
ing and working on the farm until the experiment was abandoned. The 
two brothers then went to Concord, Massachusetts, and lived with a farmer 
about two years, continuing to work in the field and study. Here Mr. 
Curtis became the intimate acquaintance and associate of the men whose 
names have made the historic town of the Revolution famous as the head- 
centre of transcendentalism in later times — Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, 
and others. Here the desire of seeing the old world came upon him, and 
in August, 1846, he sailed for Marseilles, and spent a year travelling about 
Italy, visiting and studying the points of chief interest, and mingling much 
with American artists. About another year was spent in a similar way in 
Switzerland and Germany. Spending the third season in Egypt and the 
fourth in Syria and the East, he returned by way of England, where he 
spent a part of the summer, and arrived home in August, 1850, after an 
absence of just four years. 

The years of preparation for the battle of life were now ended, and the 
time for beginning to act his part as a man had arrived. During his 



1 64 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

travels he had written letters for the New York Courier and I?tquirer and 
also for the Tribune. Shortly after his return he published his first book — 
" Nile Notes of a Howadji" — and then became one of the editorial staff of 
the Tribune, where he was once more a companion of Charles A. Dana 
and George Ripley, with whom he had shared the life and disappointment 
of Brook Farm. In this capacity he wrote a series of letters to the Tribune 
from the fashionable watering-places in the season of 1851, which were 
subsequently published as a volume under the title of "Lotus Eating," 
illustrated by the artist Kensett, whom he had met in Italy. His pen was 
now very prolific, for, in addition to newspaper and magazine work, the 
second book founded upon his travels abroad — " The Howadji in Syria" — 
was published in 1852. 

In 1853 Putnam s Monthly began its life, and Mr. Curtis became one 
of its editors and a frequent contributor to its columns. Here first appeared 
the children of his brain known to the world in hook form as " The Poti- 
phar Papers," " Prue and I," and some of the chapters of " Homes of 
American Authors." The magazine not being a success financially, the 
ownership soon changed hands, and Mr. Curtis became a part owner, but 
took no share in the business or financial management. Under the new 
proprietorship the financial affairs of the magazine went from bad to worse, 
and in 1857 the firm failed, with liabilities exceeding assets to such an 
amount that many long and laborious years of Mr. Curtis's life were 
devoted to liquidating his share of the indebtedness ; but he continued 
until the last cent was paid, though, had his sense of honor permitted him 
to do as many who now rank high in the financial and social world of New 
York have done, he could easily have relieved himself of the obligation 
without payment. In 1857 he began writing the "Easy Chair" of 
Harper s Monthly and " The Lounger" of Harper s Weekly, and has 
since been permanently connected with the latter paper, passing from the 
subordinate position to that of its principal editor in December, 1S63. It 
is by his work in this last position, extending over a period of more than 
twenty years, and covering one of the most critical periods in the history of 
the country, that Mr. Curtis has exerted his greatest influence upon public 
opinion and political action. During this period journalism has made its 
grandest strides to the rank of a profession, and wrested the shaping of 
public sentiment upon all questions from political and pulpit orators, and 
lodged it in the editorial rooms of the great journals. In this work no 
man in the United States has had a greater or more creditable influence 



CAMPAIGN OF i860. 165 

than Mr. Curtis, as the audience of scores of thousands whom he has ad- 
dressed weekly, for more than twenty years, through the columns of the 
journal which takes its tone from him, are well aware. 

The general editorial management and writing of such a journal as 
Harper s Weekly would be sufficiently arduous duty for most men, and a 
sufficiently severe tax upon most busy brains ; but Mr. Curtis has found 
time for an immense amount of work beside. When the lyceum lecture 
system came into vogue, and became such a potent vehicle for instructing, 
rousing, and educating the people, Mr. Curtis entered the lecture field, and 
has been one of the most frequent and popular lecturers from 1853 to the 
present time. He has also delivered many addresses before college and 
literary societies and upon other public occasions. Upon the establishment 
of Harper s Bazar, in 1867, he began contributing to it articles under the 
title of " Manners upon the Road," which were continued about six years. 

Mr. Curtis was an original and radical Republican. From his first ap- 
pearance as a lyceum lecturer slavery and its abolition was a subject fre- 
quently discussed and earnestly advocated by him. He took the stump 
for Fremont in 1856, speaking in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, 
and New England, and he has spoken more or less in every campaign 
since, and has taken an active part in politics at his home at West New 
Brighton, on Staten Island. He was a delegate to the national conventions 
which nominated Lincoln in i860 and 1864, and bore a conspicuous part 
at a critical point of the proceedings in i860. The venerable, fiery, and 
influential Joshua R. Giddings had become deeply offended at the rejec- 
tions of the words " life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness," proposed by 
him as a part of the first resolution, and was upon the point of withdrawing 
from the convention in disgust and anger when Mr. Curtis, by great tact 
and an eloquent speech, which gave him great reputation, induced the 
convention to reconsider its action and adopt the resolution in a form that 
satisfied Mr. Giddings. He was also a delegate to the convention that 
nominated Blaine and Logan in 1884. He opposed both these nomina- 
tions with all his might and influence, but remained in the convention to 
the end, and took part in all its proceedings. After the convention he 
refused to support the ticket, and carried his opposition so far as to advo- 
cate and use all his influence and that of the journal of which he is editor 
to secure the election of Cleveland and Hendricks, the candidates of the 
Democratic party. 

Mr. Curtis is one of the men who has been prominent in politics without 



l66 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

holding political office. He once ran for Congress as a matter of form in 
the hopelessly Democratic district in which he lives, knowing that he could 
not be elected. He was offered the office of consul-general to Egypt by 
President Lincoln in 1862, but declined it. He was offered the post of 
.Minister to England and subsequently that of Minister to Germany by 
.lent Hayes, but declined. On the death of Henry J. Raymond, in 
1869, Mr. Curtis was invited to accept the position of editor-in-chief of the 
New York Times, but declined. Having been one of the leading advo- 
cates of civil service reform, he was appointed by President Grant in 1871 
a commissioner to draft rules for regulating the civil service, and was 
chosen chairman of the commission ; but after serving a little over a year he 
resigned, on account of radical difference of views between him and the 
President on the subject of civil service reform. He was a member of the 
Constitutional Convention of New York in 1867 and a Presidential elector 
in 1868. 

In person Mr. Curtis is about medium size, and has a strikingly refined 
and intellectual face. As a speaker his manner is very polished and grace- 
ful. He never rants or splurges. Though he can indulge in witticism 
and pleasant banterings on the stump, his addresses are always in the style 
of a finished essay or editorial. He is not an orator of impulse, who trusts 
to the inspiration of the moment or an audience to put words into his 
mouth. He is not a speaker to rouse the enthusiasm of masses or those 
whose political convictions are not based upon their reasoning and intelli- 
gence. His rare gifts as an orator would be substantially lost upon any 
but an intelligent and thinking audience ; but given this he is one of 
America's most admirable speakers, his manner in speaking somewhat 
resembling that of the late Wendell Phillips, one of the most perfect orators 
that spoke the English tongue, the oration at the ceremonies in commem- 
oration of whose life was fitly delivered by Mr. Curtis. 



HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

I toratio .Seymour was born in Onondaga County, New York, in the year 
181 1. He received a thorough and liberal education in the best schools 
ol the State. No pains were spared by his parents to fit him for taking a 
prominent position in public affairs, to which career he seems to have been 
devoted from his childhood. 



CAMPAIGN OF i860. 1 67 

Young Seymour in early life decided to adopt the law as his profession, 
and so industriously and vigorously had he pursued his studies that he was 
admitted to the bar when only a little more than twenty years old. 

In his earlier years he took very little active interest in political affairs, 
but that rare, comprehensive, statesmanly ability which he possessed was 
called for in the councils of the State, and in the fall of 1842 he consented 
to the election of a seat in the Legislature. As was to be expected, Mr. 
Seymour took a commanding position in that body. He began the session 
with a local reputation, but when it closed he had made himself known and 
honored throughout the. State. 

In 1852 Mr. Seymour was elected Governor of New York, and was 
defeated for re-election in 1854. After this defeat Mr. Sevmour returned 
to his home in the city of Utica. His high qualities of mind and heart 
had drawn to him at the outset of his political career a band of devoted 
friends and admirers, and every year increased their numbers, until at length 
he came to be regarded as the foremost man of the Democratic party in his 
own State, and one of the purest and most gifted leaders of that party in 
the Union. His views were eagerly sought on all the great questions of 
the day, and his utterances received the respectful consideration of all parties. 

In the convention held at Charleston in i860, when it became evident 
that the contest between the friends of Douglas and those of Breckinridge 
could not be settled amicably, Mr. Seymour's name was presented by the 
Southern delegates, with the hope that the two wings of the party would 
unite upon him as a compromise ; but Mr. Seymour would not consent 
to the use of his name at that time. 

During the campaign of i860 Mr. Seymour supported the regular Demo- 
cratic ticket, and when the Secession movement began at once exerted him- 
self to procure a peaceful settlement of the difficulty. He believed, with 
the great orator and statesman, Burke, that there never yet was a revolution 
that might not have been prevented by a compromise opportunely and 
graciously made, and urged the adoption of measures of conciliation and 
peace ; but the extremists of the North and South prevailed in bringing on 
the war, and the labors of the conservative men of the country in both 
parties were defeated. Mr. Seymour was again elected governor in 1863, 
and no State executive excelled him in patriotic loyalty to the Union. 

Mr. Lincoln said, in acknowledgment of his services, that " no governor 
had done more to strengthen the United States Government in its hour of 
need than Governor Seymour." 



l68 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Mr. Seymour is a copious and eloquent speaker, and his voice has been 
heard with telling effect in every campaign since 1840. He unites the 
closest reasoning with graceful oratory, and his earnest, candid delivery is 
but the echo of his honest convictions. 



GALUSHA A. GROW. 

Galusha A. Grow was born in Eastford, Connecticut, in 1824. His 
parents were very poor. When he was eight years old his father died, leav- 
ing six children, of whom Galusha was the youngest son. Mrs. Grow 
placed three of the children in the care of relatives, and taking with her the 
eldest son, the youngest daughter, and Galusha, then ten years old, re- 
moved from the hamlet of Voluntown, Connecticut, to a little farm in 
Lenox, in north-eastern Pennsylvania. Her chattels consisted of a yoke 
of oxen and one cow. Galusha drove the oxen for ploughing. The first 
year's crop consisted of a field of oats and a few acres of maize, and even 
that, it seemed at one time, would be taken from them, Pigeons in 
countless numbers flocked together and roosted in the neighborhood of the 
Grow farm. They were very partial to oats and corn, and farmers had to 
guard their acres carefully. Galusha was sent to keep the pigeons away. 
Taking his dinner in a basket to the field, .a mile distant from the house, 
he perched on the ridge-pole of the barn, on the outskirts of the field, and 
with two long poles whacked on the shingles resounding blows whenever 
he saw pigeons flying over him to alight. So he spent the days until the 
corn and oats were too large for the pigeons to disturb. It was not until 
Galusha was nearly fourteen years old that he had an opportunity to attend 
district school regularly. Eager to learn, he was one among a few kindred 
spirits to form a debating society. The only time be had to prepare for 
the debates was by reading while at his daily tasks on the farm. Thrown 
on his own resources, the boy shipped as a hand on a lumber raft from 
Tunkhannock, on the Susquehanna River, to Marietta, a trip ot five days. 
In a rough board cabin on the raft the men ate and slept. Galusha was 
cook as well as oarsman. Mrs. Grow established a little store at Glenwood 
Post-Office, near her old home, and Galusha, as her assistant, found more 
time for study. In 1838 he entered Franklin Academy at Hartford, 
Pennsylvania, and in i840hewent to Amherst College. He won the 



CAMPAIGN OF i860. 1 69 

reputation of a ready debater, and developed a gift for making a sound 
speech at short notice. His oration on graduating, in 1844, was on a 
political topic. 

In 1844 Mr. Grow studied law in the office of the Hon. F. B. Streeter, 
at Montrose, and was admitted to the bar in Susquehanna County on 
April 19th, 1847. Study had undermined his health, and in the summer 
of 1850 he went into the dense hemlock forests of north-eastern Pennsyl- 
vania, and wielded the axe in peeling bark. The winter of that year he 
made surveys of land. Meanwhile Mr. Grow's abilities as a stump speaker 
began to be known. In the fall of 1850 the Hon. David Wilmot, Mr. 
Grow's partner, was the candidate of the Free-Soil branch of the Demo- 
cratic party, and James Lowrey, candidate of the Pro-slavery branch of the 
party for Congress in the Twelfth Congressional District, withdrew, with the 
understanding that Mr. Grow, then almost unknown outside of the county in 
which he lived, should be supported by the Democrats. He was elected a 
week after his nomination, and in December, 1851, he took his seat in the 
Legislature at Washington. He was then twenty-seven years old, and the 
youngest member of Congress. Mr. Grow at once made his mark as an 
orator. With instinct that amounted to genius, he began agitation on a 
subject which afterward became, next to slave-holding, the most prominent 
question before the people's representatives. It was the question whether 
Government land, then beginning at Ohio and running westward over what 
is now the most productive part of the Union, should be taken up by act- 
ual settlers, or whether, on the other hand, corporations and capitalists 
should buy up and hold, for speculative purchases, those immense prairies. 
The question has long since been settled, and to Mr. Grow's eloquence 
and courage the country owes the decision of the question on the side of 
the people. His first speech in Congress was on that theme, and persist- 
ently in every Congress for ten years Congressman Grow advocated the 
measure. During the agitation of the slavery question Mr. Grow's voice 
was heard both in and out of Congress with no uncertain sound. He 
spoke in Pennsylvania cities, and his direct, clear, and vigorous reasoning 
went far to clear away every mist from the discussion. Horace Greeley 
said of him in 1859 : " ^ r - Grow has exhibited fertility of resource, com- 
mand of parliamentary tactics, a promptitude in seizing an opportunity, a 
wisdom in act, and a brevity of speech such as have been rarely exhibited 
in Congress." When Mr. Grow took his seat as Speaker of the House of 
Representatives on July 4th, 1861, his vigorous speech in behalf of the 



lyo THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Federal ( lovemment was applauded. Two years afterward, when his term 
lice expired, feeble health compelled him to seek rest and a change. 
A disease of the throat, from too frequent out-of-door speaking, had 
fastened itself upon him. He became a lumber dealer, and invested in oil. 
His health did not improve, and he spent the summer of 1871 on the 
Pacific coast, ami in the fall of the year he went to Texas, where he re- 
mained as President of the Houston and Great Northern Railroad Com- 
pany until 1S75, when he returned to Pennsylvania, and with tongue and 
pen advocated the election of Governor Hartranft, the Republican candi- 
date, who was elected. In the Presidential campaign of 1876 he spoke for 
I laves not only in Pennsylvania, but also in Indiana, Ohio, and New 
York. He declined the mission to Russia tendered by President Hayes. 
Again, in 18S0, Mr. Grow took the stump for Garfield in Pennsylvania, 
( )hio, and New York, which were the most critical States. His power as a 
speaker, it has been said, is founded in a strong moral sense and convic- 
tions, unselfish purposes, a patriotism which overrules all considerations of 
personal interest or partisan expediency, a vivid imagination, and that 
sympathy which is the requisite of every true orator. He is still in busi- 
ness, with his health improved, and has not ceased to speak for the welfare 
of the nation. 



DANIEL DOUGHERTY. 

Daniel Dougherty was born in the city of Philadelphia on October 15th, 
1826. His father when a lad came to this country from Ireland. His 
mother was a native of Philadelphia, and his maternal grandfather was a 
volunteer in the War of 181 2, and was killed at the battle of Lake Erie. 
.Mr. Dougherty was educated in his native city, and was admitted to the bar 
on May 2d, 1849. From his early boyhood he evinced a taste for public 
speaking, and whether at .home or wandering in the fields outside the city, 
whenever he could do so unobserved, he was declaiming. When a lad he 
was a prominent debater in several literary societies, and his rendition of 
the part of Marc Antony, in the play of Julius Ccesar, brought out by a 
thoroughly equipped Thespian association, is well-remembered by numbers 
of those who were in the crowded auditory. His oratorical talent had 
n him distinction in Philadelphia before his admission to the bar, and 
his first speech for the defence in the Smithers homicide case created a 




Stewart L. Woodford. 



CAMPAIGN OF i860. 173 

marked impression. The judges, counsel on both sides, and the public 
press spoke in high terms of praise of the ability that he manifested as an 
advocate. Though the prisoner's guilt was evident, the jury, after remain- 
ing out six days and six nights, brought in a verdict of acquittal. This at 
once established the young lawyer' s reputation, and laid the foundations for 
a career that has earned for Mr. Dougherty a large income from his practice 
and a wide reputation. At all times, whenever he appears in court in a case 
of any magnitude — and he has the good judgment never to attempt to 
make, before a jury, a great speech in an unimportant suit — the court- 
room is crowded. 

His address before the literary societies of Lafayette College in 1859, 
when he spoke upon the theme " Fears for the Future of the Republic," 
showed the stern independence of the man, pointing, as it did, in no un- 
certain language, to the indifference of the people to public affairs and the 
degradation and violence of party spirit. The address drew a picture which 
was considered at the time as far too gloomy and pessimistic, but which 
the awful realities of the war that soon followed stamped as bearing the 
impress almost of prophecy. This speech was quoted from at considerable 
length in the House of Commons by Bulwer Lytton before his elevation to 
the peerage. Some years ago, after many and urgent invitations, he was 
induced to prepare a lecture upon " Oratory." He delivered this lecture 
in all parts of the country, and the success that had attended this first 
venture in a rather unusual field encouraged him to write two other 
lectures, one upon " The Stage" and the other upon " American Politics." 
He received invitations from all sections of the United States, and during 
several seasons made frequent lecturing tours. He was, however, finally 
compelled to abandon the platform for the court-room, his professional 
practice demanding his undivided attention. As an evidence of Mr. 
Dougherty's popularity as a lecturer, it may be stated that he has netted 
over $20,000 from " Oratory." 

His first political speech was made before he had reached his majority. 
It was delivered in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial campaign of 1847. The 
next year, in the Cass campaign of 1848, he "stumped" the northern 
range of counties in the Keystone State in company with Hon. Galusha A. 
Grow, they being young men of nearly the same age. Mr. Grow entered 
political life shortly afterward, and has since been Speaker of the House of 
Representatives of the United States. Mr. Dougherty clung to his profes- 
sion, and has repeatedly declined political preferment. Though for many 



174 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

years a conspicuous political speaker, he has never aspired to be a poli- 
tician, and lias frequently publicly expressed himself as entertaining noth- 
ing but contempt for the tricks and trades of wire-pulle: ' and machine 
managers. lie played a prominent part in the Pierce campaign in 1852. 
In 1856, while attending, as a spectator, the Democratic State Convention 
in Chambersburg, he was invited to address the convention, and his speech 
upon that occasion created intense enthusiasm, and became one of the feat- 
ures of that campaign. While Mr. Dougherty was speaking the venerable 
Josiah Randall, father of Hon. Samuel J. Randall, and a leader of the 
Whig party, but who had announced his determination to vote for Mr. 
Buchanan, entered the hall, and was invited to a seat among the delegates. 
The speaker, abandoning the line of thought, instantly addressed the ven- 
erable citizen, and advancing toward the latter extended his hand, and wel- 
comed Mr. Randall to the faith and fold of the Democracy. This incident 
thrilled every auditor, and the dramatic scene was one long to be remem 
bered. Nothing more striking shows the natural orator than his ability on 
the instant to rise with any emergency. This mental alertness forms an 
important part of Mr. Dougherty's success as an orator. It is illustrated 
in the above episode, as well as in an incident which occurred when he was 
making a speech on St. Patrick's day, in 1867, before the Friendly Sons of 
St. Patrick in New York City. The society then embraced a strong English 
element, and when, in replying to the toast of Ireland, the Philadelphia 
lawyer was picturing the political wrongs of that country, he was inter- 
rupted by the president, Judge John R. Brady, who said : " Sir, you are 
violating the rules of this organization, which do not allow any political 
allusions to be made." 

Mr. Dougherty hesitated but an instant, and then, in his clear, ringing 
voice, and in his most impassioned manner, said : " Mr. President, over- 
look my enthusiasm, if you can, and. in the language of Edmund Burke, 
' pardon something to the spirit of liberty.' ' The reply had its instant 
effect, and the whole company rose from their seats, while cheer on cheer 
went ringing through the hall. 

Mr. Dougherty opposed the Lecompton policy of President Buchanan, 
and became an ardent adherent of Mr. Douglas in i860. Perhaps the 
most polished of his political speeches was one delivered in Philadelphia 
after the adjournment of the Charleston Convention and the reassembling 
of the same body in Baltimore. Although he had been a friend and 
itlmirer of Mr. Breckenridge, he bitterly opposed the election of that gen- 



CAMPAIGN OF i860. 1 75 

tleman, believing that the Breckenridge movement meant nothing less 
than an attempt to dissolve the Union. He was unsparing in his denunci- 
ation of all its adherents, standing alone among the noted Democrats of 
Philadelphia for the straight-out Douglas ticket, which, without the help 
of politicians, and lacking the aid of the usual campaign methods, polled 
9000 votes in -Philadelphia ! 

After the election of Mr. Lincoln it became palpable that war was inevi- 
table, and he wrote to Senator Douglas, entreating him to awaken patriotic 
enthusiasm by replying to the speeches of Senator Iverson, of Georgia, and 
others, who uttered, on the floor of the United States Senate, sentiments of 
treason against the Government. With the first signs of the coming war 
Mr. Dougherty broke from all partisan associations, and was among the 
foremost men of his city in furthering the Union cause. His voice could 
be heard everywhere preaching for liberty and union. And so he contin- 
ued until the close of the war. Early in October, in the Lincoln campaign 
of 1864, his popularity was unbounded. At the announcement that he 
was to speak on behalf of Mr. Lincoln, Concert Hall was, so crowded that 
even the president of the meeting was obliged to stand throughout, and 
thousands could not get near the hall. It was with the greatest difficulty 
that Mr. Dougherty himself could make his way to the platform. Two 
nights afterward, at Harrisburg, when the Hon. Horatio Seymour was to 
address a Democratic meeting and Mr. Dougherty was announced to speak 
at an Union meeting, the Philadelphia orator sent a polite note to the dis- 
tinguished statesman from New York, inviting him to a joint discussion, 
the preliminaries to be at once arranged. Mr. Seymour, through the 
Hon. Hiester Clymer, politely declined the courteous challenge. Shortly 
afterward Mr. Dougherty was invited by the citizens of Boston, headed by 
Edward Everett, to speak for the Union cause in Faneuil Hall. Upon his 
appearance in that historic building he was received with enthusiasm. 
Upon his return to Philadelphia, after speaking in various places, among 
others in Cooper Institute, in New York, his reception in the Academy of 
Music in that city, where he was the only speaker, was perhaps the greatest 
ovation ever extended there to a private citizen. Though tickets had been 
issued, so dense was the throng that all the aisles and every available inch 
of room was filled, and it was found necessary to close the doors and to 
give positive directions that not another person should be admitted. With 
the close of the war Mr Dougherty devoted himself entirely to his profes- 
sion, and for more than a decade of years never made a political speech. 



Ij6 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

During the Tilden campaign he addressed the Democracy of New York 
in Cooper Institute. Mr. Tilden honored him by personally requesting 
him to devote a portion of his time to addressing meetings in different parts 
of the Empire Mate, but he was compelled to decline by professional 
engagements. In his own city, however, he made a powerful speech in 
favor of the Democratic candidates. 

In 1880, as the guest of the Americus Club of Philadelphia, he attended 
the National Convention in Cincinnati. Known as a friend of General 
Hancock and an advocate for his nomination, Mr. Dougherty was re- 
sted by R. Milton Spear, delegate at large from Pennsylvania, to take 
the hitter's scat and present Hancock's name to the convention. The sug- 
gestion emanated from a number of the general's friends, who, late on the 
night before the nominations were to be made, extended, through Mr. 
Spear, the request to Mr. Dougherty. He accepted the proffered honor, 
and with little time intervening prepared the speech that, perhaps, more 
than anything else, tendered to make his name familiar in every part of the 
land. He evidently resolved to make it as brief as possible, epigrammatic, 
and with no unnecessary words. He plunged into his subject at once. 
His imposing presence at once riveted attention. His voice, clear as a 
trumpet, Ding through the immense hall. His attitude and splendid 
declamation created the wildest enthusiasm, and when he had finished his 
five-minutes' speech the nomination was a foregone conclusion. It may be 
truthfully said that had General Hancock been elected, a single speech, 
occupying in its delivery only a few moments, had made a President of the 
United States. 

During the campaign which ensued he bore a conspicuous part, speaking 
in all the battle States of the Union. 

Mr. Dougherty's style of speaking varies with the occasion. When ad- 
dressing the bench his manner is quiet and conversational, and frequently 
in important cases he writes out his argument. Speaking to the jury in 
important cases, or haranguing the people in mass, he is impassioned to 
the highest degree, and while not physically exhausted, he feels the strain 
t' .r several days. 

Daniel Dougherty is often seen at his best around the post-prandial 
board. He is a great social favorite. His character as a man stands un- 

tioned, and his fellow-citizens of all political opinions bear witness I 
the integrity <>i his character and the purity of his motives. 



CAMPAIGN OF i860. 1 77 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S CABINET. 

Secretary of State. — William H. Seward, of New York, appointed 
March 5th, 1861. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. — Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, appointed 
March 7th, 1861 ; William P. Fessenden, of Maine, appointed July 1st, 
1864. 

Secretaries of War. — Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, appointed 
March 4th, 1861 ; Edwin M. Stanton, of Ohio, appointed January nth, 
1862. 

Secretary of the Navy. — Gideon Welles, of Connecticut, appointed 
March 5th, 1 S61. 

Secretaries of the Interior. — Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, appointed 
March 5th, 186 1 ; John P. Usher, of Indiana, appointed January 8th, 1863. 

Postmasters-General. — Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, appointed 
March 7th, 1861 ; William Denison, of Ohio, appointed October 1st, 
1864. 

Attorneys-General. — Edward Bates, of Missouri, appointed March 5th, 
1 86 1 ; James Speed, of Kentucky, appointed December 2d, 1864. 



CHAPTER XX. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 
REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. 

For Vice-President. 
Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
George B. McClellan of New Jersey. 

For Vice-President. 
George H. Pendleton of Ohio. 

CONVENTIONS AND NOMINATIONS. 

The Republican National Convention met at Baltimore on the 7th of 
June, when Abraham Lincoln was renominated for President and Andrew 
Johnson nominated for Vice-President. 

The Democrats held their National Convention at Chicago on the 29th 
of August, and selected General George B. McClellan and George H. 
Pendleton for President and Vice-President. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 864. 1 79 



WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 

William Maxwell Evarts was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 6th 
of February, 1818. Whatever advantage maybe reaped from hereditary 
gifts and educational advantages fell to his lot. His father was Jeremiah 
Evarts, Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions, who was graduated from Yale College in 1802, practised law in 
New Haven, edited the Panoplist, a religious monthly magazine, afterward 
the Missionary Herald, published in Boston, wrote many essays on the 
rights of Indians, and died in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1831, when 
William M. Evarts was thirteen years old. Grave and studious as a boy in 
the Latin school at Boston, he entered Yale College when fifteen years old, 
and was graduated in 1837, when he was nineteen years of age. In college 
he had already settled the direction of his life work, and although he was 
diligent in all his studies, yet logical and severe pursuits suited him best. 
Slender in frame, he had no aptitude for the rough sports of college boys, 
and wiseacres wagged their heads as they looked at his fine, intellectual face 
and feared for the brilliant young Evarts. 

On completing the regular college course Mr. Evarts was nineteen years 
of age. At that time the Harvard Law School, with Justice Story and 
Professor Greenleaf in the faculty, was the most prominent institution of 
the kind in the country. Mr. Evarts finished the regular course in this 
institution, and in 184 1 was admitted to. the bar in New York City. In the 
metropolis his scholarly style as an orator, his thorough grounding in the 
principles of law, and intense application to details in his client's business 
soon made him conspicuous. Appointed Deputy United States District- 
Attorney in 1849, he held the position four years, and, besides discharging 
the genera] duties of the office in a way to deserve the respect of the Federal 
Government officers above him, and also the confidence of the people, he 
took part in the courts in many questions of national interest. Such ques- 
tions were the prosecution of persons connected with filibustering expedi- 
tions to Cuba, the annexation of which to this country was a popular 
movement. 

Later he was associated with President Arthur as counsel for the State in 
the celebrated Lemmon slave case, which they together carried from one 



ISO THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

court to another, and to final success. Two celebrated cases which Mr. 
rts has conducted successfully are the Parrish will case and that of the 
mother of President Tyler's widow, Mrs. Gardiner. 

In the late war the building of rebel rams in England was a matter of 
.; anxiety to the Federal Government. Mr. Evarts was sent twice to 
the British Government to represent the condition of affairs and the position 
of the United States in the matter, and through diplomacy ami knowledge 
of international law succeeded in inducing the English authorities to action 
which checked the open building of rebel craft and reduced the advantages 
of the Confederate States in England in that respect to a minimum. 

Mr. Evarts's connection with the impeachment proceedings of President 
[olmson, in the House of Representatives, in April and May, 1S68, first 
brought him prominently before the whole country. He was principal 
counsel for President Andrew Johnson, and he obtained, by a majority of 
one vote, a refusal to sustain the articles of impeachment presented by the 
House of Representatives. It was a natural result of the trial that Mr. 
Evarts was appointed Attorney-General of the United States. He held the 
position from July, 1868, to March, 1869. 

President Grant appointed Mr. Evarts counsel for the United States to 
present and defend the interests of the Government and the people before 
the Geneva Arbitration Committee to settle the amount of damage due the 
United States in the famous Alabama claims question. ( Ipposed to the 
st legal minds in England, Mr. Evarts convinced the commission that 
England owed this country $15,000,000, and the sum was paid. In the 
suit brought against the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher by Theodore Tilton, in 
[873, Mr. Evarts was Mr. Beecher' s senior counsel. 

In 1877 President Hayes appointed Mr. Evarts Secretary of State. His 
administration of the office was in every way creditable to the Government 
which chose him and to himself. Since 18S1 a large law practice has 
employed his time. His residence is in a modest square brick house at 
>nd Avenue and Fourteenth Street, detached from adjacent buildings 
and adorned with climbing ivy. He spends the summer months at his 
country-house, Runnemede, near Windsor, Vermont. 

As an orator in politics, Mr. Evarts's relation to any political canvass, 
as he has himself described it, has been such as belongs to a private citizen 
who feels a share of interest and responsibility about public affairs. On the 
rostrum his manner is grave, dignified, and deliberate, as though he seeks to 
carry conviction by the unanswerable nature of his argument. A character- 




Carl Schurz. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 864. 1 83 

istic gesture is an impressive, sustained shaking of the fore-finger ol his right 
hand in the air above his head when he approaches the climax of a long- 
continued argument. He is as fond of long sentences as is a German 
metaphysician. In reply to those who criticise his style of expression, he 
has said : " No one but criminals object to long sentences." Yet every 
phrase of his long sentences contributes to the evolving of the original 
conception in the speaker's mind, and phrase follows phrase until the 
sentence rolls to a majestic close. Mr. Evarts is the first chosen to speak 
on great public occasions — at the unveiling of the statue of a great man, 
at the placing of a corner-stone for an educational institution, at memorial 
celebrations, and, far from being of an ascetic temperament, his face is often 
seen at the banquet board. Around his after-dinner speeches plays a quiet 
humor, and to those who have sought to joke at his expense a sarcastic 
thrust of wit sets the tables in a roar. 

Union and Yale College and Harvard University have conferred on him 
the decree of Doctor of Laws. 



GEORGE H. WILLIAMS 

George H. Williams was born in Columbia County, New York, on the 
26th of March, 1823. He was educated at the academy on Pompey Hill, 
in Onondaga County, where his father removed at an early day. He 
studied law with Hon. Daniel Gott, and at the age of twenty-one he was 
admitted to practise in the courts of that State. In the same year he 
immigrated to the then Territory of Iowa, and commenced the practice of 
his profession at Fort Madison. In 1847 he was elected Judge of the 
Fifth Judicial District of Iowa. He discharged the duties of that office for 
five years, when both political parties offered to join in his re-election, but 
he declined. In 1S52 he was nominated by the Democratic State Con- 
vention of Iowa as one of the Presidential electors, and canvassed the State 
for Franklin Pierce. In March, 1853, chiefly upon the recommendation 
of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, who was his personal friend, he was ap- 
pointed Chief-Justice of the then Territory of Oregon, and immediately 
with his family removed there. He was reappointed Chief-Justice of the 
Territory by President Buchanan, but resigned, and resumed the practice of 
his profession in Portland. Many leaders of the Democratic party at the 



1 84 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

time the State government was formed were in favor of making Oregon a 
slave State, and that question, separate and apart from the Constitution, 
was submitted by the Constitution Convention to the people. Mr. Williams 
took decided ground against the establishment of slavery in the new State, 
speaking and writing against it, and the pro-slavery party was defeated, but 
his standing as a party man was greatly impaired by the contest. When 
the Secession movement was inaugurated Mr. Williams dissolved his con- 
nection with the Democratic party, and assisted in the formation of a Union 
party in Ins State. In September, 1864, he was elected by the Republican 
party to the United States Senate. Soon after the expiration of his Senato- 
rial term he was appointed one of the Joint High Commission to settle by 
treaty with Great Britain the Alabama claims and other disputed questions 
between the two countries. His appointment was with special reference to 
the north-western boundary between the United States and Great Britain, 
which had been in controversy ever since the treaty of the 15th of June, 
[846. In December, 1 871, Mr. Williams was appointed Attorney-General 
of the United States. 

.Mr. Williams's voice has been heard in every Presidential campaign in 
all sections of his adopted State since 1856, and not infrequently in other 
Mates of the Union. He is a forcible, logical, and at times an eloquent 
speaker, always leaving with his auditors some impressive thoughts over 
which reasoning minds will ponder. 



RICHARD B. HUBBARD. 

Richard Bennett Hubbard is a native of Walton County, Georgia, and is 
now fifty-one years of age. His father, Richard Bennett Hubbard, Sr., 
was of Welsh ancestors, who, emigrating to America, bore a conspicuous 
part in the war of the Revolution, serving in Virginia and the Carolinas. 
His mother, Serena Carter, was a native of Georgia, and descended from 
the Carters and Battles, whose names are enfibred with the history of that 
State, distinguished as they were for patriotism, honor, and every manly 
virtue. His father died in the sixty-fifth year of his age, in Smith County, 
s, whither he had followed the fortunes of his only son. His aged 
her still lives. 

Mr. Hubbard's educational advantages have been of the best character, 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 864. 1 85 

nnd he has well improved them. He is a graduate of Mercer University, 
Georgia, which institution he left at the age of eighteen, with honors. He 
subsequently passed through the law department of the University of Vir- 
ginia, and graduated at the law school of Harvard University. In 1852 he 
moved to Texas and began the practice of his profession at Tyler, Smith 
County, where he has ever since resided. 

His success was marked from the beginning. His superior talents, ex- 
cellent attainments, tireless application, and strict fidelity speedily brought 
him into notice, and his persevering energy and eminent success at the bar 
placed him at the front, and early gave him a large and lucrative practice. 
Scarcely three years after his arrival in Texas he was not only recognized 
to be a sound lawyer and eloquent advocate, but also as a leader in poli- 
tics. 

In 1855 the Know-Nothing or American party had acquired great promi- 
nence, and threatened the overthrow of the then dominant Democracy. 
Democratic leaders saw that the newly-aroused prejudices of the people 
were about to give power to a proscription part}-, and that the very best 
talent of their party must be brought into requisition to disabuse the public 
mind. Henry A. Wise, then the most brilliant, powerful, and influential 
orator of Virginia, was put forward in his State to crush the rising power of 
the Know-Nothings. He did it after a long heated and intensely bitter 
campaign. What Henry A. Wise was to the Democracy of Virginia, Rich- 
ard B. Hubbard was to the Democracy of Texas. He canvassed the State, 
aroused the sympathies of his party friends, and saved the State to the 
Democrats. It was during this campaign of 1855 that he gained the 
sobriquet of the " Eagle orator of Texas.'' 

In the following year he again canvassed the State in the interest of his 
party. Early in the spring of 1856 he was chosen a delegate from Smith 
County to the State Democratic Convention, which met to choose eight 
delegates to the national convention to be held at Cincinnati. The State 
convention met at Austin, and Mr. Hubbard was chosen one of the eight 
delegates to Cincinnati, where he voted for Mr. Buchanan as the nominee 
for President of the United States. On his return home the party de- 
manded of him still further services, and again the hustings of Texas rang 
with the powerful speeches of the gifted young orator. In 1859, when 
Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated President, Mr. Hubbard was appointed 
United States District-Attorney for the Western District of Texas. 

This office he held but little over two years ; but during his official life he 



1 86 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

participated in numerous famous trials. In 1858 he resigned the office, 
and became a candidate to represent Smith County in the State Legisla- 
ture. v 

Local considerations prompted this course. He had fulfilled his duty as 
nicer oi the Federal court, and had won the confidence of the bench 
and bar. but the people of the State, and especially of Smith County, de- 
manded his voice in their legislative council. His course in the Legislature 
to which he was elected was marked by prudence and ability, and his 
speeches in that body had much influence. He was an acknowledged 
• the I -egislature. 

In [860 Mr. 1 [ubbard was again chosen a delegate to the National Con- 
vention, which met at Charleston, South Carolina. In that convention he 
opposed the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas and advocated the selection 
of Breckinridge and Lane for President and Vice-President. The Republi- 
cans nominated Mr. Lincoln and the Americans Mr. Bell, of Tennessee. 
The election of Mr. Lincoln was followed by the Civil War, lasting from 
April, 1861, to April, 1865. 

.Air. Hubbard raised the Twenty-second Texas Regiment of Infantry for 
the Confederate Army, of which he was made colonel. He was active during 
die war, his hearing throughout being that of a true patriot and soldier. 
As his fame in no degree rests upon his military record, it is only necessarv 
to say that with him the war ceased when active hostilities were ended. He 
pted, in good faith, the results of the war, forgot, as far as possible, the 
bitterness engendered by the conflict, everywhere counselled moderation 
and acquiescence in the inevitable, and went quietly to work to repair his 
shattered fortunes. His personal example exerted a healthful influence 
throughout the State. He did not resume the practice of law till some 
years later, and the disabilities imposed upon him by the Federal Govern- 
ment, in consequence of his connection with the Confederate Army, pre- 
vented him from taking an active part in political affairs. 

I >uring the period of reconstruction he devoted his energies to his private 
business, but was by no means a disinterested observer of passing events. 
Although he did not approve all the measures adopted by the general Gov- 
ernment to rest, .re the State of Texas to the Union, yet he was too wise and 
prudent to antagonize a power which he was impotent to control or even 
influence. He knew there was a time in the not distant future when the 
t Texas must resume control of the State machinery, and he patiently 
awaited the result. As soon as he deemed it prudent, he again began the 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 864. 1 87 

practice of law, and soon found himself in die midst of professional busi- 
ness. This brought him prominently before the public again, and his 
friends insisted on his reappearance in the political field. In 1872 he was 
sent as a delegate to the Democratic State Convention to be held at Corsi- 
cana. He was then nominated as one of the electors for the State at large, 
and canvassed the State for Horace Greeley. Applause and welcome 
greeted him wherever he went, and although Mr. Greeley was not a favorite 
with the people of Texas, Colonel Hubbard was chosen elector by a 
majority of over 20,000. 

In 1874 he was again sent as delegate to the Democratic State Conven- 
tion which met at Austin. It was composed of about eight hundred dele- 
gates, and he was unanimously chosen its presiding officer and made chair- 
man of the State Democratic Executive Committee. He was, by the 
action of his friends, a competitor for the nomination for the office of gov- 
ernor, and was the second choice of the convention, Judge Coke receiving 
the nomination. Colonel Hubbard was then, by a unanimous vote, nom- 
inated for lieutenant-governor, and was elected by a majority of over 
50,000. The duties of • this office he discharged with such distinguished 
ability as to win encomiums from every member of the Senate over which 
he presided ; but the adoption of the new State Constitution vacated all the 
offices, and made a new election necessary. Colonel Hubbard was again 
unanimously nominated for lieutenant-governor, and was elected by a 
majority of over 100,000. 

In December, 1876, Governor Coke was elected United States Senator, 
and Governor Hubbard assumed gubernatorial control of the State. No 
man ever became the chief executive of a great State under more auspicious 
circumstances, nor with a firmer purpose to render to the State and the 
people an essential and profitable service. Perfectly familiar with Texas, 
her resources, her needs, the inducements she offered to immigrants, and 
the necessity for extraordinary efforts to secure immigrants to till her soil 
and people her vast domain, he set to work intelligently to accomplish results 
of incalculable benefit to the State and to the South-west. His recommen- 
dations to the Legislature were accepted in the spirit in which they were 
offered, and the prominent measures of reform were adopted. The tide 
of immigration rolled over the State, from which there has not been and 
is not likely to be a refluent wave. Progress, like a spark falling on an 
inflammable mass, has spread throughout the vast territory, and the census 
of 1880 shows an immense increase in the wealth, population, and produc- 



1 88 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

tion of Texas. This grand consummation is in a large degree the result of 
Governor Hubbard's individual efforts. 

Although Governor Hubbard had announced his intention to retire from 
active political life, the Democratic State Convention, held at Galveston in 
1880, selected him as one of the delegates from the State at large to the 
National Convention that met at Cincinnati in June. His colleagues were 
distinguished citizens of Texas, and included some of her ablest men. The 
delegation was uninstructed, but it was probably known to every member of 
the State Convention that Governor Hubbard preferred General Winfield 
Scott Hancock to any other man as the standard bearer of the Democracy 
in the national contest. When nominations were made in the convention, 
and the name of General Hancock was presented, Governor Hubbard 
seconded the nomination in a speech of great power ; and this speech was 
supplemented by another made before a popular assembly on the evening 
previous to the final ballot. Both created great enthusiasm for General 
Hancock, who had endeared himself to the people of Texas by his patriotic 
course while commanding the Department of the South-west, and did much 

( ure Ins nomination. His speeches received universal praise for their 
eloquence and vigor, and were worthy of the man, of the Empire State of 
ihe New West, and of the great occasion, and were listened to by the repre- 
sentatives of more than half the people of the Union. 

Governor Hubbard is the most popular orator in Texas. He is a social, 
genial gentleman, of high literary attainments and most pleasing address ; 
a fine specimen of the old type Southern orator, never speaking on public 
occasions without due preparation and moving the hearts and sympathies of 
thosa who hear him by feeling in his own bosom the emotions he arouses 
in others. His brilliant canvass of the State in 1872 as a candidate for 
elector and his impassioned oratory in 1S73 awakened the Democratic 
party from the lethargy occasioned by the practical operation of the recon- 
struction acts of ( 'ongress, and aided largely in wrestling the State govern- 
ment from the hands of the Republican party. Perhaps there is no man 
more universally popular in Texas than Governor Hubbard. Though a 
private citizen, without office, and neither seeking nor desiring public 
station, yet he is everywhere received with marked honors by all the 
people, irrespective of party. This popularity is based not alone upon the 
fact that he is a magnetic speaker, but upon his worth as a citizen and his 

1 es as a inau. I [e has given his talents and energies to advancing the 
• f the Stat.-, developing its exhaustless resources, and bringing into 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 864. 1 89 

it thousands of substantial citizens. He is a progressive man, and keeps 
pace with the age in which he lives. With broad, liberal, and comprehen- 
sive views of both State and national polity, he is not circumscribed by 
sectional lines. Devoted to the cause of the South in the late Civil War, 
he yielded to the arbitrament of the sword to which he appealed, and has 
forgotten the bitterness of the past. With true patriotism, he has devoted 
his talents, whenever opportunity offered, to the noble work of restoring 
fraternal good feeling among the people of our common country. In 
every position of public trust to which the people have called him, his per- 
formance of duty has been marked by strict fidelity and an earnest devotion 
to the public weal. He has honored every office held by him. 

After retiring from the gubernatorial office in 1879, ne devoted his time 
and talents to the development of Texas — by giving to her people competi- 
tive outlets for their trade. The organization of the Great Narrow Gauge 
System of South-western Railways was effected largely through him, and 
now reaches from Cairo, Illinois. 765 miles to Gatesville, Texas, 40 miles 
beyond the valley of the Brazos. His speeches before the solid men of 
St. Louis and their Merchants' Exchange aroused that people, and are 
remembered as masterpieces in moving capital to invest in independent 
competitive railways connecting the Great West with Texas and, through 
Mexico, to the Pacific coast. 

In 1884 Governor Hubbard was elected a delegate at large to the Chicago 
Convention, and on the meeting of that body, on the 8th of July, Governor 
Hubbard was unanimously elected temporary chairman, which honor he 
acknowledged in a very effective speech. 

Governor Hubbard is classed among the first of Southern orators, and 
his talents are not overestimated. He possesses personal magnetism in an 
eminent degree. His voice is full, sonorous, and powerful, never harsh or 
disagreeable. His manner is graceful, his diction chaste and elegant, 
abounding in appropriate tropes and similes, while his delivery heightens 
the effect of his speech. In argumentative discourse he is close, logical, 
and analytical, presenting his propositions with precision, yet never grows 
prolix or wearisome. In the persuasive art he excels, and never fails to 
arouse the sympathies of his hearers when sympathy is needed. As an 
advocate he has few equals at the bar, and on the rostrum he ranks with 
his ablest contemporaries. Behind all those natural gifts he enjoys rich 
culture and an industrious mind trained to regular labor, which has given 
him such eminent success as an executive officer. 



190 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

There was no change made in President Lincoln's cabinet after his 
second inauguration, except that of Secretary of the Treasury. Hugh 
McCulloch, of Indiana, was appointed to succeed William P. Fessenden 
.March 7th, [865. 



PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S CABINET. 

April 15th, 1865 — March 3d, [869. 

Secretary of State. — William H. Seward, of New York, continued. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — Hugh McCulloch, of Indiana, continued. 

Secretaries of War. -Edwin M. Stanton, of Ohio, continued : John M. 
Schofield, of New York, appointed April 23d, 1868. 

Secretary of die Navy. — Gideon Welles, of Connecticut, continued. 

Secretaries of the Interior. — John P. Usher, of Indiana, continued; 
James Harlan, oi tovva, appointed .May 15th, 1865 ; Orville H. Browning, 
of Illinois, appointed September 1st, 1866. 

Postmasters-General. — William Denison, of Ohio, continued ; Alex- 
ander W. Randall, appointed July 24th, 1S66. 

Attorneys-General. — William Speed, of Kentucky, continued ; Henry 
Stanberry, of Kentucky, appointed July 23d, 1866 ; William M. Evarts, 
of New York, appointed July 15th, 1868. 




Albert Miller Card. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1868. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois. 

For Vice-President. 
Schuyler Colfax of Indiana. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Horatio Seymour of New York. 

For Vice-President. 
Francis P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri. 

CONVENTIONS AND NOMINATIONS. 

The Republican National Convention met in Chicago on May 20th, and 
nominated General Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax for the offices of 
President and Vice-President of the United States. 

The Democrats met in national convention at the city of New York on 
the 4th of July, and nominated Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair. 



1 )4 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTV-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



HUGH JUDSON KILPATRICK. 

In the beautiful valley oi the " Clove," in Sussex County, New Jersey, 
on the 14th of January, 1836, was born the soldier and the orator, General 
Kilpatrick. He entered the military academy at West Point in his eigh- 
teenth year, and on the breaking out of the Rebellion he petitioned the 
President, with the signatures of the first class, for their immediate gradua- 
tion, which was granted, and the young soldiers were at once sent to the 
field. 

A volume would not encompass a recital of the invaluable services which 
Kilpatrick rendered his country in the dark days of its history, and to 
recount the deeds and heroic achievements of this valiant soldier would be 
to trespass beyond the limits of this work. After the close of the Rebellion 
( ieneral Kilpatrick was undecided in regard to his future calling. Although 
a thorough soldier, yet a soldier's life void of the exciting contests of the 
battle-field was an irksome one to him, and instead of an inactive soldier's 
lite he resolved to abandon the army and pursue the vocations of peace. 
His widowed mother was living cm the old homestead a few miles from 
Deckertown, New jersey, and he concluded to resign his commission in 
the army, take up his residence from which he went a few years before a 
beardless boy, and become a farmer ; but his restless nature would not be 
content with agricultural pursuits alone, and he was soon actively engaged 
in politics and espousing the Republican cause. During the Presidential 
campaign of 1864 and those which followed he became one of the cele- 
brated speakers on the stump, and was universally recognized as inferior to 
none. He possessed a wonderful ability to electrify an audience, and was 
as enthusiastic and fearless on the rostrum in the field of politics as he had 
i een in the saddle years before leading his brave soldiers in the " March to 
3ea.'! 

He spoke throughout the New England, Middle, ami Western States. 
generally engaged in the State elections of very many of the North- 
ern States. He was appointed United States Minister to Chili in 1866, and 
remained at his post until August, 1870. 

( >n his arrival home he set about improving his farm, spending the 

summer there, and lecturing in the winter season. His first and most suc- 

ful lecture was " Sherman's March to the Sea." Having borne a con- 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 868. I95 

spicuous part in the march he conceived the idea of embodying the events 
in a lecture ; and being possessed of a knowledge of the principal incidents 
connected with it, and peculiar power of description, particularly 1 
scenes, it at once became one of the most popular lectures of the day. 
was first given in Music Hall, Boston, and was recognized by that cil 
acknowledged literature as a success. Xo other lecture in the countr. 
been so often repeated. 

He next prepared a lecture entitled " Incidents and Battle Scenes 
the Rebellion.' * It was a compiled description of the various engagements, 
and was noted for its vivid description of the battle of Gettysburg. 

General Kilpatrick was twice a candidate for the nomination of Governor 
of New Jersey. He was chairman of the New Jersey delegation which 
attended the Chicago Convention in 1880, and seconded the nomination of 
Chester A. Arthur for the Vice-Presidency. He was very earnest in pre- 
senting the claims of John Sherman for the Presidency, but finally \ 
for General Garfield. 

During the campaign he spoke through the New England, Middle, 
Western States, and was nominated for representative in Congress from his 
own district. It was Democratic by 5000 majority, but he was not a man 
to be daunted by that consideration. He had disregarded superior num- 
bers during the war, and felt he could overcome majorities on the political 
field. He made a vigorous canvass, and was defeated, but he reduced the 
majority materially and made flattering gains in his own neighborhood an 1 
county. After the inauguration of General Garfield he was appointed to 
the Chilian Mission. He sailed from New York in June, 1881, i r . 
post of duty. 

Before leaving he complained of being very much reduced in strength, 
but attributed it to over-exertion, and expressed a belief that the trip and 
climate would improve his condition. Almost immediately on his arrival 
in Chili he began to complain of waning strength. In the hopes of im- 
proving his condition he was removed to a plantation a few miles from 
Santiago, but of no avail. 

On the evening of December 2d, 1881, the grim rider whose shaft had 
been turned aside so oft on the battle-fields had won the victory, the str 
arm lay motionless, and his bright eye was paled by death's cold touch. 

In stature General Kilpatrick was five feet five inches in height, rather 

. and from habitual riding was inclined to stoop forward. He had a 

very prominent nose — which, it is said, Napoleon declared marked a great 



196 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

general— thin lips, and his gentle blue eye wore an expression of mildness, 
in duett contradiction to his record as a soldier ; and in that capacity, which 
he so much exalted, he will live on the pages of his nation's history ; and 
when centuries shall have sped and a grateful posterity shall turn the leaves, 
no name will inspire a higher admiration for valor or a deeper devotion to 
country than General Judson Kilpatrick. 



CARTER H. HARRISON. 

r H. Harrison was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, February 
25th, 1825. 

At rifteen he was sent to school to Dr. Lewis Marshall, brother of the 
chief- justice, and father of the celebrated Kentucky orator, Thomas F. 
Marshall. He was with him two years, and then went to Yale College, 
entering the sophomore class, and graduated in 1845. After graduating 
he returned home and studied law, but did not practise. 

ing a fair competence, he went to Europe in 1851, and visited every 

part of England and Scotland, much of it on foot, for a closer study of the 

people and their characteristics. He travelled over the continent, Spain, 

and Russia excepted, passed into Egypt, and thence, with Bayard 

Taylor, did Syria and Asia Minor. 

Taylor's " Land of the Saracen" was the result of their tour together. 

He returned to America in 1853. To complete his law studies he entered 

the Transylvania Law School at Lexington, and finished the course in 

In the same year he went to Chicago, and, foreseeing its future 

bilities, decided to settle in that growing city. He there began the 

ice of law ; but at that period, being inclined to diffidence, appearing 

iurts and juries was so averse to his tastes he relinquished the pro- 

>n, and engaged in the real-estate business, which he found a more 

nial vocation, promising a shorter way to fortune's goal. 

It was not till 1870 that Mr. Harrison took any part in politics, or was 

n beyond the precincts of his city. In 1872 he was a Democratic 

nominee for Congress, but was defeated by a small majority. 

hi 1874, while abroad, he was again nominated for Congress and 

ele< ted, and in 1876 he was re-elected. In 187S he declined a renomina- 

1. and in April, 1879, he was elected mayor of Chicago. In 1881 he 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 863. 19/ 

was again a candidate for the mayoralty, and was re-elected by an increased 
majority, notwithstanding a strong press opposition. During these few 
years of Mr. Harrison's official life, he developed a readiness for speaking 
almost phenomenal, and is now regarded as one of the most brilliant 
orators of the West. 



ROSCOE CONKLING. 

One is not wise if, desirous of posthumous fame, he rests it upon popular 
or brilliant oratorical efforts. The wonder-working power of all oratory — 
that fascination which fades away as the person of the speaker vanishes — 
ploughs no deep furrow in the seed-field of time, but leaves behind only a 
pleasing tradition, more or less vague. 

The dual essentials of a worthy public man — oratory and a capacity for 
work — are not often blended. But estimated on that basis, Roscoe Conkling 
is pre-eminently one of the leading orators of to-day, and in the national 
legislation of the past twenty years his mind and work are deeply impressed. 

Roscoe Conkling was born at Albany, New York, October 30th, 1829. 
His father, Alfred Conkling, was a representative in the Seventeenth Con- 
gress, and was appointed by John Quincy Adams Judge of the United 
States for the Northern District of New York, in 1825, and Minister to 
Mexico, by Fillmore, in 1852. He was the author of several valuable 
books on law. 

Roscoe received a common-school and academic education, and in 
Auburn and Geneva he studied law three years under his father's tuition, 
and in 1846 entered the law office of Spencer & Kernan, in Utica, New 
York. In 1848 he was appointed, by Hamilton Fish, District- Attorney 
for Oneida County, several months before he attained his majority. On 
the day he was twenty-one he was admitted to the bar, at which he had 
already acquired considerable reputation. 

During the next decade he disclosed rare managing qualities, and was 
looked to as a leader in local politics. In law he ranked first as an advo- 
cate. The triumphs which he achieved at the bar, and which were his 
passport to public preferment, were gained before he reached the age of 
twenty-nine. He married Julia Seymour, a sister of Horatio Seymour. 

In 1858 he was elected Mayor of Utica, and by a tie vote in the follow- 



[98 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

ing campaign he was obliged to hold over for another year, as neither of 
mdidates qualified. 
In November, j S58, he was sent to the Thirty-sixth Congress, and took 
his seat in December, 1859, a session noted for its long and bitter contest 
■ n the Speakership. He was re-elected in i860, and entered the Thirty- 
seventh Congress at the opening of the special session convened by Lincoln, 
July 4th, 1861. In this Congress he was Chairman of Committee of Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and also of a special committee to frame a bankrupt law. 
A candidate for re-election to the Thirty-eighth Congress, he was defeated 
by his old law partner, Francis Kernan, but at the election of 1864 he was 
successful, Mr. Kernan again being his opponent, and he resumed his seat 
in the Thirty-ninth Congress. 

The fame of Mr. Conkling as an orator had preceded him, as had his 
reputation as a party manager. He startled the nation by a vigorous 
nit upon General McClellan, and gave the key-note for earnestness in 
all future war legislation at a time when hesitation and vacillation prevailed. 
In all monetary measures and legislation for the prosecution of the war, he 
was an active supporter. 

In the fall of 1866 he was elected to the Fortieth Congress, but before 

that Congress met was chosen to succeed Judge Ira Carpenter as United 

Mates Senator from New York, and took his seat March 4th, 1867. He 

was re-elected in 1S73, and again in 1S79. He was a zealous supporter of 

( leneral Grant's administration. The general policy of that administration 

toward the South was largely directed by Senator Conkling, who advocated 

it with all the power of his eloquence and all the potency of his personal 

political influence. He was largely instrumental in the inception and 

ige of the Civil Rights bill. 

One of the most important acts of Senator Conkling's political career 

was the part he took in framing an act for an Flectoral Commission in 

In regard to the powers conferred upon the commission, he said : 

" Mr. President, I had supposed that the Constitution had raised not only 

and a fence, but a wall of limit to the powers it confers. I had 

»sed that when five of the most largely instructed and trusted members 

of the Senate, and five of the most largely instructed and trusted members 

. were authorized to meet five judges of the highest and most 

instructed judicial tribunal of the land, we might trust to them to 

ule what a court of ( )yer and Terminer settler, whenever it is called upon 

letermine whether it has jurisdiction to try an indictment for homicide 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 868. I99 

or not. I had supposed that, giving it the instrument by which its jurisdic- 
tion is to be measured, we could trust this provisional tribunal of selected 
men to run a boundary and fix the line marking their jurisdiction." 

Mr. Conkling attended the Republican National Convention in 1880, 
and was the leader of the famous 306. His speech in nominating Grant 
was a marvel of brilliancy, and his celebrated couplet will never be for- 
gotten. He said : 

" And if you ask me whence he comes, 
Or what his name may be, 
He hails from Appomattox, 
And its famous apple tree." 

The effect was electrical, and General Grant's nomination was only pre- 
vented by quick and judicious work. Mr. Conkling's speeches during this 
campaign were of the greatest help to the success of the Republican party. 

His resignation as Senator soon after Mr. Garfield's inauguration is well- 
known recent history. This action caused great excitement through the 
country. Mr. Conkiing was not re-elected, and he removed to New York 
City and devoted himself once more to the practice of law. He has met 
with success, and is building up a competency which political life never 
afforded him. 

In his public speeches his power of repartee and faculty of gauging and 
carrying his hearers with him is unsurpassed. 

During the campaign of 1880, in one of his speeches delivered in West- 
ern New York, Mr. Conkling, after an eloquent eulogy of his party, said : 
" And they say there should be a change. A change ! What for ? Will 
some kind Democratic friend in this audience tell me what benefit will 
come of a change ?" An excited but courageous Democrat cried out, " It 
will do away with the aristocracy of America." Conkling paused, and 
begged for a repetition of the words. Again the answer came, " It will do 
away with the aristocracy of America. " " Do away with the aristocracy of 
America ?" said the orator. " Merciful heavens ! If there is an aristocrat 
in this audience, will he please hold up his right hand ?" 

In 1858, as candidate for mayor, the workingmen were opposed to him 
for his alleged non sympathy. This opposition was cleverly manipulated 
by Mr. Conkling's political opponents, until it resulted in a published call 
for a Workingmen ' s Meeting, to nominate one more in unison with them. 
Mi. Conkling attended, and after listening to several speeches in which he 



2O0 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

was attacked, rose and said : " I attend this meeting pursuant to call. I 
am a working man, and earn my bread by the sweat of my brow. It does 
not seem to me that it makes any difference whether this perspiration is on 
the outside or the inside of my head." The opposition suddenly ceased. 

Unthinking people are governed by prejudices. Little things sway 
them. A peculiarity of speech, a difference in dress, or a profusion or a 
scarcity of hair irritates them. No man in American politics has been 
more persistently misunderstood or malignantly misrepresented than Roscoe 
i onkling. In private life he is " the prince of good fellows" in the better 
sense of the phrase. No one more than he understand the beauty of the 
daily courtesies and little kindnesses which go so far toward pleasant living. 



PRESIDENT GRANT'S FIRST CABINET. 

Secretaries of State. — Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, appointed March 
5th, 1869 ; Hamilton Fish, of New York, appointed March nth, 1869. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, ap- 
ited March 1 ith, 1869. 

Secretaries of War. — John A. Rawlins, of Illinois, appointed March 
nth, 1869 ; William W. Belknap, of Iowa, appointed October 3d, 1869. 

Secretaries of the Navy. — Adolph E. Borie, of Pennsylvania, appointed 
March 5th, 1869 ; George M. Robeson, of New Jersey, appointed June 
25th, 1869. 

Secretaries of the Interior. — Jacob D. Cox, of Ohio, appointed March 
5th, 1869 ; Columbus Delano, of Ohio, appointed November 1st, 1870. 

Postmaster-General. — John A. J. Creswell, of Maryland, appointed 
March 5th, 1S69. 

Attorneys-General. — Ebenezer R. Hoar, of Massachusetts, appointed 
March 5th, 1869 ; Amos T. Akerman, of Georgia, appointed June 23d, 
. George H. Williams, of Oregon, appointed January 10th, 1872. 




Leroy F. Youmans. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1872. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois. 

For Viee-P resident . 
Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. 

LIBERAL REPUBLICAN DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES 

For President. 
Horace Greeley of New York. 

For Vice-President . 
B. Gratz Brown of Missouri. 

conventions and nominations. 

The Liberal Republicans, an organization which sprung from the Re- 
publican party in 1870, met in national convention at Cincinnati on the 
1st of May, 1S72, and nominated Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown. 

The Democratic party, in its national convention held at Baltimore, July 
9th, indorsed the nominations made by the Liberal Republicans at Cin- 
cinnati. 

This action of the Baltimore Convention not being altogether acceptable 
to the more conservative element of the party, a convention was called at 
Louisville on the 3d of September by the Straight-Out Democrats, and 



204 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Charles O' Conor, of New York, and Charles Francis Adams, of Massachu- 
setts, were placed in nomination. 

The Labor Reform party held a convention at Columbus, Ohio, on the 
2 ist of February, and nominated David Davis, of Illinois, for President and 
Joel Parker for Vice-President 

These nominees having declined, a convention of workingmen was held 
at Philadelphia on the 22d of August, and nominated Charles O'Conor, oi 
New York, for President 

The Republican party held a national convention at Philadelphia on the 
5th of June, and nominated General Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Wilson". 



WADE HAMPTON. 

General Wade Hampton was born in Columbia, South Carolina, on the 
28th day of March, 1818. He is descended from Revolutionary stock, 
his great-grandfather having been an officer in the Revolutionary War. 
His family from that time to the present have occupied a prominent posi- 
tion in the history of South Carolina, both politically and socially, and up 
to the time of the late Civil War were possessed of large wealth. 

The present General Wade Hampton lived upon his plantation near 
Columbia, and did not come prominently before the public until the Seces- 
sion movement in 1861, when he cast his fortunes with those of his State, 
and enlisted in the cause of the Confederacy, and fought through the war 
until its close. His leadership and military qualities were early recognized, 
and he was rapidly promoted, and at the close of the Rebellion ranked as 
one of the most prominent generals on the Southern side. 

After the war he returned to South Carolina and sought the quietude of 
his plantation, where he resided untd called from his retirement by the 
unanimous voice of the people of the State to lead them in the exciting 
contest of 1876, when war upon what was known as " carpet-bag rule" was 
declared. He was nominated for governor at the Democratic Convention 
eld .it Columbia in the summer of that year against Daniel H. Chamber- 
in, the Republican nominee. The greatest enthusiasm prevailed after the 
nomination of Hampton, and the people took hope that a brighter future 
pening for the State. 
After the most spirited canvass ever held in the State Hampton carried 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 872. 205 

the election, which was contested by the Republicans, but was finally de- 
cided by the inauguration of General Hampton as governor. The excite- 
ment and partisan feeling which prevailed during this contest was intense, 
Federal troops being stationed at Columbia at the time, which further em- 
bittered the people, and bloodshed was only prevented by the forbearance, 
wise counsel, and influence exerted by Wade Hampton under the most 
trying circumstances. The white people had the most unbounded confi- 
dence in his courage, wisdom, and ability, and he possessed in no small 
degree the confidence and respect of the colored population ; and, as events 
have proved, he was most worthy of the trust reposed. He was twice 
elected governor and since elected to the United States Senate, in which 
capacity he is now serving the State. In person Wade Hampton is an 
exceptionally handsome man, being over six feet in height, broad and well 
proportioned, and possessing a fine open and benevolent countenance. 

He is an earnest speaker, carrying the conviction to every mind that he 
believes and means what he says. He ranks as one of the best political 
orators in his State, and it is only necessary to announce him on any occa- 
sion to draw a large audience. In the Senate on several occasions he has 
shown himself not unworthy to compete with the boldest combatants in 
that body. 



BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. 

Benjamin F. Butler was born at Deerfield, New Hampshire, on the 5th 
day of November, 1818. 

In a recent speech he spoke of his early life as follows : ' ' My father 
died at sea. I never knew him, for I was a babe in arms. His vessel was 
lost, and he left my mother to bring up her children, and a hard struggle 
it was. One of those children (referring to himself) was so delicate in 
health and small in body that it was thought he might not be able to laboi 
with his hands. The other two aided the mother to send him to school, 
and afterward to Waterville College, in Maine, and there, for three hours a 
day, he labored with his hands in a mechanic's shop and helped to earn 
his education." 

He graduated in 1838, and commenced the practice of law at Lowell, 
Massachusetts, in 184 1. His disquisitive mind very early led him to take 



206 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

an active interest in politics, and in his early manhood he espoused the 
principles of the Democratic party. In 1853 he was elected a member of 
the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and six years later to the State 
Senate. In i860 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention 
which met at Charleston, where he became conspicuous as a bold and fear- 
less advocate of the principles which he maintained, and won a reputation 
for temerity which he has upheld with unfaltering consistency. 

In the Charleston Convention, he endeavored to persuade the delegates 
to simply reaffirm the principles enunciated in 1856 at Cincinnati by the 
convention, which nominated Mr. Buchanan for the Presidency, but in 
this he was defeated. When a portion of the delegates reassembled at 
Baltimore, Mr. Butler, after taking part in the opening debates and votes, 
announced that a majority of the delegates from Massachusetts would not 
further participate in the deliberations of the convention, on the ground 
that there had been a withdrawal in part of the majority of the States ; and 
for himself, he added, " I would not sit in a convention where the African 
slave trade, which is piracy by the laws of my country, is approvingly advo- 
cated. 

In the same year he was nominated by the Democratic party for the 
1 hip of Massachusetts, but was defeated by the Republican nom- 
inee. John A. Ami: 

When President Lincoln called for troops in April, 1861, General Butler 
held the commission of brigadier-general of militia. He was engaged in 
court at Boston when Governor Andrew received a requisition from the 
War Department for Massachusetts' quota of men, and in two days later 
General Butler marched out of Boston Common at the head of his brigade, 
leading his command to the defence of the Government. In the service of 
his country in the held, he distinguished himself no less than he had done 
by his ability in civic life. During the war General Butler underwent a 
change of political faith, and retired from the army a staunch Republican. 
In two or three campaigns after the close of the rebellion he was one of the 
I popular orators that addressed vast political meetings. 

In 1866 General Butler was elected by the Republicans a member of 

.mil on taking his seat soon became a prominent and active 

member of the House of Representatives. lie was the most active of the 

- by the House of Representatives to conduct 

President Johnson. He closed his Congressional 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 872. 20/ 

In 1S71, and every year successively until 1882, General Butler was an 
unsuccessful candidate for the Governorship of Massachusetts. In the 
latter year he was elected to that office by the Democrats, and defeated for 
a second term, in 1883, by the Republican nominee. 

In 1S84 he was a candidate for the Presidential nomination before the 
Democratic Convention at Chicago, having been previously nominated for 
that office by the National Greenback and Labor Reform parties. Failing 
in a nomination at Chicago, he subsequently wrote letters accepting the 
nominations tendered him by the Greenback and Labor parties, and there- 
upon became their regular nominee for the Presidential office. 

General Butler has the courage of his convictions. He does as little as 
any public man for policy. If he wishes an office or political preferment, 
and it is not tendered him, he asks for it 



STEWART L. WOODFORD. 

Stewart L. Woodford was born in the city of New York on the 3d of 
September, 1835. His father, Josiah C. Woodford, was from Hartford 
County, Connecticut ; his mother from Suffolk County, New York. At 
the age of fifteen years he entered the freshman class of Columbia College, 
from which he graduated, third in his class, in 1854. He then devoted 
himself to the study of the law at New York City, and was admitted to the 
bar in 1857. 

In the year i860 he was delegate at Chicago to the convention which 
nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, and took an active part in 
the canvass which led to Mr. Lincoln's election. It was his privilege to 
convey the vote of the Electoral College of New York to Washington, and 
immediately after he was elected chairman of die Young Men's Republican 
Committee of the city of New York. 

In 1 86 1 Mr. Woodford was appointed Assistant United States Attorney 
for the Southern District of New York, and was placed in charge of the 
cases of naval captures, which were then very numerous, owing to the block- 
ade of Southern ports. But in 1862, after McClellan's retreat from Rich- 
mond, he resigned this position to enlist as a private in the army. He 
was immediately elected captain of his company, which was assigned to the 
One Hundred and Twenty-seventh New York Yolunteers, under Colonel 



208 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

William Gurney. Before leaving for the front he was promoted to a lieu- 
nt-colonelcy, and about this time he removed his residence to Brook- 
lyn. 

The winter of 1S62-63 was spent by his regiment in and around Wash- 
in, which was then threatened by the rebel forces. On General 
Longstreet's investment of Suffolk, Virginia, in the spring of 1863, Colonel 
•dford's command was sent thither and subsequently to the Peninsula 
under General Dix. He afterward served in the Eleventh Corps, and was 
then transferred to the Department of the South, where, with his regiment, 
he took part in General Gillmore's extensive operations against Charles- 
ton. He commanded, in the spring of 1864, the several forts on Morris 
Island which so destructively shelled Charleston. During the summer of 
that year he acted as Judge Advocate-General in the Department of the 
South, and in the early autumn of that year he was intrusted with the 
supervision of the exchange of prisoners in Charleston Harbor. But pre- 
ng active service, he applied for and received leave to rejoin his regi- 
ment and participate in the operations undertaken by General Foster 
1 the < lharleston and Savannah Railroad, and received commendation 
for his conduct at the battles of Honey Hill, Coosawhatchie, and Tulafinny. 

lust before the surrender of Lee, and after active measures had ceased 
- 
on the coast, Colonel Woodford was appointed Provost Marshal-General 

of the Southern Department, and was soon after made the first military 
< Governor of Charleston, where he was successful in restoring and maintain- 
order and establishing an efficient local city government. 
.Major General Gillmore now appointed him his chief of staff, and while 
acting in this capacity he was brevetted brigadier-general for meritorious 
services. Shortly afterward he was appointed Military Governor of Savan- 
nah, which office he successfully filled, re-establishing the police force, 
hting the streets, and satisfactorily administering generally the civil 
is of the city. He subsequently reassumed the position of chief of 
to the department commander, and in August, 1865, he resigned his 
imission, returning to his residence in Brooklyn and to the practice of 
law in New York City. 
In October, 1865, General Woodford was unanimously nominated by 
the Republicans of New York City as their candidate for Judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas, but he declined the nomination, not desiring to 
nge his place of residence from Brooklyn. 
In the fall of 1866, after a spirited canvass, in which he took an active 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 872. 209 

part, visiting nearly every county in the State, he was elected lieutenant- 
governor by a majority of 15,024 votes over his Democratic competitor, 
Mr. Pruyn. 

In 1870 he was nominated as Republican candidate for Governor of New- 
York, but was defeated by the Democratic nominee, John T. Hoffman. 
In 1872 he was elected member of Congress from the Third Congressional 
District in Brooklyn, succeeding his old army comrade, General Henry 
W. Slocum. In the fall of that year he was chosen Presidential elector at 
large for New York, and on the assembling of the Electoral College, which 
cast the vote of the State for Grant and Wilson, he was unanimously 
elected by that body as its President. Frederick Douglass, also an elector 
at large, was chosen messenger to carry the vote to Washington. 

In 1873 Mr. Woodford resigned his seat in Congress on account of 
professional business. 

In 1875 he canvassed Ohio in joint debate on the money question with 
General Ewing, in the heated campaign of that year, which resulted in a 
victory for ' ' honest money. 

At the National Republican Convention in 1876 he received sixty-eight 
votes as a candidate for the nomination for Vice-President, but withdrew 
his name when the roll-call reached the State of New York. 

In January, 1877, he was appointed United States Attorney for the 
Southern District of New York, and this being an office in the line of his 
profession, he accepted. 

At the Republican National Convention of 1880 his name was again 
presented for the nomination for the Vice-Presidency, but he again with- 
drew, and nominated General Arthur. 

In May, 1881, his term as district-attorney having expired, he was re- 
appointed by President Garfield to that position, from which he was. 
removed by President Arthur in the spring of 1883. 

In addition to his active labors in his profession of the law, General 
Woodford has devoted much time to literary pursuits. He is still a care- 
ful student of the classics and an orator of recognized merit and ability. 



2IO THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



PRESIDENT GRANT'S SECOND CABINET. 

Secretary of State. — Hamilton Fish, of New York, continued. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. — -William A. Richardson, of Massachusetts, 
appointed March 17th, 1873 > Benjamin II. Bristow, of Kentucky, ap- 
pointed June 4th, 1874. 

Secretaries of War. — William W. Belknap, of Iowa, continued ; 
Alphonso Taft, of Ohio, appointed March 7th, 1876 ; James Donald 
Cameron, of Pennsylvania, appointed May 22d, 1876. 

Secretary of the Navy. — George M. Robeson, of New Jersey, con- 
tinued. 

Secretaries of the Interior.- — Columbus Delano, of Ohio, continued ; 
Zachariah Chandler, of Michigan, appointed October 19th, 1875. 

Postmasters-General. — John A. J. Creswell, of Maryland, continued ; 
James W. Marshall, of Virginia, appointed July 3d, 1874 ; Marshall Jewell, 
of Connecticut, appointed September 1st, 1874 ; James N. Tyner, of In- 
diana, appointed July 12th, 1876. 

Attorneys-General —George H. Williams, of Oregon, continued; Ed- 
wards Pierrepont, of New York, appointed May 15th, 1875 : Alphonso 
faft, of Ohio, appointed May 2 2d, 1876. 




William Mahone. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1876. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. 

For Vice-President. 
William A. Wheeler of New York. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Samuel J. Tilden of New York. 

For Vice-President. 
Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana. 

CONVENTIONS AND NOMINATIONS. 

The Republican National Convention was held at Cincinnati on the 14th 
of June, and nominated Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler. 

The National Convention of the Democratic party was convened at St. 
Louis on the 27th day of June, and nominated Samuel J. Tilden and 
Thomas A. Hendricks. 

The " National " or " Greenback - ' party held a convention at Indian- 
apolis on the 17th of May, and nominated Peter Cooper, of New York, for 
President and Samuel F. Cary, of Ohio, for Vice-President. 



214 TIIE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 



THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

Thomas Andrews Hendricks was born near Zanesville, Muskingum 
County, Ohio, September 7th, 1S19. His father was John Hendricks, a 
native of Western Pennsylvania, one of the first settlers of the Ligonier 
Valley, in Westmoreland County, and an active participant in public affairs, 
s :rving in tlu: State Legislature and in other positions of trust. The 
mother was Jane Thomson, of Scotch descent, her grandfather, John 
Thomson, emigrating to America before the Revolution, and bearing an 
torable and conspicuous part in that struggle. When Thomas was but 
six months old his father removed to Indiana, settling at Madison, on the 
Ohio River. This was the home of his brother, William Hendricks, the 
second governor of the new State, the first Representative in Congress, and 
afterward the predecessor of his more famous nephew in the United States 

te. John Hendricks held a minor office under the Government as 
surveyor of public lands, and was a man of good abilities and sturdy char- 
acter, [n the year 1822 the father of Thomas concluded to move further 
into the interior of the State, and took up his residence in Shelby County, 
- nt site of the county seat, Shelbyville. Here John Hendricks 
built him a substantial brick house, which is still standing, in which his 

ly was reared, amid the best influences that could be enjoyed in those 
pioneer days. Indianapolis had just been laid out and established as the 
future capital of the State, and Air. Hendricks's house was one of the prin- 
cipal centres ol educated refinement in the central part of Indiana. 

Thomas attended the village school until of sufficient age to enter the 
college at South Hanover, near Madison, graduating from which he began 
the study of law with Judge Major, the leading member of the bar of 

tral [ndiana. The final period of his study was passed in the office of 
his uncle, Judge Thomson, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and he was 
then admitted to the bar at Shelbyville. His ' success was not rapid; 
but his close attention to study, correct methods, and pleasant man- 
nduced to make him a favorite, and in the end he gained a 
high place in his profession and a lucrative practice. lie was an impressive 

ic speaker, having early given himself much to the arts of oratory, and 
this fact at once directed toward him the choice of the people for publi< 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 876. 21 5 

After five years' practice, in 1848, young Hendricks was elected to the 
Legislature, when not twenty-eight years of age. He was not particularly 
well pleased with that service, and declined a re-election in 1850. In the 
mean time a constitutional convention had been called, and though so 
young, the votes of the Senatorial district in which he lived elected him a 
member, he being one among the younger members of that body, with 
Schuyler Colfax and William S. Holman. 

In August, 1 85 1, he was elected to a seat in Congress from the central 
district of the State. His opponent was Colonel Rush, of Hancock, whom 
he defeated by nearly 4000 votes. By the terms of the new State Constitu- 
tion an election was held the next year, in 1852, and again he was elected 
from a new district, his opponent being Mr. Bradley, an able and brilliant 
Whig, between whom and Mr. Hendricks in that campaign there was a 
joint discussion, the first of that sort of campaigning in Indiana. 

On the 4th of March, 1855, Mr. Hendricks returned to his law office at 
Shelbyville, and in August of that year, while sitting on the porch of his 
home in the evening, a messenger stepped up and handed him an official 
autograph letter from President Pierce, making him the tender of the office 
of Commissioner of the General Land Office. Mr. Hendricks accepted 
the position, and in September appeared in Washington. He held this 
office until 1859, when he resigned and returned to the practice of his pro- 
fession in Shelbyville 

But he was not allowed to remain quiet. His party was preparing for 
the great contest of i860, and Mr. Hendricks was unanimously nominated 
by the Democratic Convention as candidate for governor, his opponent 
being the late Colonel Henry S. Lane, who had for his lieutenant Oliver P. 
Morton, who had four years previously made a brilliant but unsuccessful 
campaign against Ashbel P. Willard. The result was the election of 
Lane and Morton, and Mr. Hendricks returned to his law practice. He 
removed to Indianapolis shortly afterward and opened an office, taking at 
once a leading place at the bar. 

The Legislature of 1862-63 was Democratic, and Jesse D. Bright having 
been expelled from his seat in the United States Senate, David S. Turpie 
was elected to fill out eighteen days of the unexpired term, while Mr. 
Hendricks was unanimously chosen for the full term of six years. He 
took his seat in the National Senate on the 4th of March, 1863, and served 
until 1S69 — four years as the colleague of Senator Lane and for two years 
with Senator Morton. He became in creat measure the leader of the small 



2l6 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Democratic minority in that body. While yet a Senator in Congress his 
party again nominated him for governor, the Republicans nominating 
Conrad Baker. After an exciting campaign Baker was elected by about 800 
majority, and Senator Hendricks again returned to his law office. 

In 1872 the State was again rent with a political contest. The Liberal 
movement of that year on the part of dissatisfied Republicans gave the 
I >i mocrat v an apparent opportunity for success, and again the State Con- 
vention nominated Mr. Hendricks for governor. His Republican oppo- 
nent was General Thomas M. Browne. As the result of another remark- 
ably close election, Mr. Hendricks was chosen governor by a plurality of 
1200 votes, while all the other officers of the State, except the Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction, were Republicans. In the next month Grant 
carried Indiana by 6000 majority. He made an urbane, careful, satisfac- 
tory governor, and retired from the position with the respect of all parties 
in the State. 

1 [e was a candidate for the Presidency in 1868 at the New York Tam- 
many Hall Convention, but there he was antagonized by a part of his own 
State delegation. He was again a Presidential candidate in 1876; but 
Samuel J. Tilden was the choice of the convention, and he accepted a 
nomination for second place. 

Mr. Ikndricks was again a candidate for the Presidential nomination at 
Cincinnati, in 1880, and this time had the ardent and enthusiastic support 
of his entire Slate delegation, but the nomination went to General Han- 
cock. Mr. Hendricks worked ardently for the success of General Han- 
cock, and his voice was heard in eloquent appeals in all sections of the 
country. 

Mr. Hendricks was again a prominent candidate for the Presidency 

before the Chicago Convention in 1884 ; but the convention favored the 

claims presented by the friends of Grover Cleveland for that nomination, 

and Mr. Hendricks was thereupon nominated by a unanimous vote for the 

of Vice-President. 



CARL SCHURZ. 

1 arl Schurz was born at Liber, near Cologne, Prussia, on the 2d of March, 
He was educated at the Gymnasium of Cologne and the University 

li he entered in [846. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1876. 217 

At the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 he joined Gottfried Kinkel, 
professor of rhetoric in the university, in the publication of a liberal news- 
paper, of which for a time he was the sole conductor. In the spring of 
1849, m consequence of an unsuccessful attempt to promote an insurrec- 
tion at Bonn, he fled with Kinkel to the Palatinate, entered the revolution- 
ary army as adjutant, and took part in the defence of Rastadt. On the sur- 
render of that fortress he escaped to Switzerland. In 1S50 he returned 
secretly to Germany, and with admirable skill and self-devotion effected the 
escape of Kinkel from the fortress of Spandau, where he had been con- 
demned to twenty years' imprisonment. In the spring of 185 1 he was in 
Paris, acting as correspondent for German journals, and he afterward spent 
a year in teaching in London. He came to the United States in 1852, 
resided three years in Philadelphia, and then settled in Madison, Wis- 
consin. In the Presidential canvass of 1856 he delivered speeches in Ger- 
man in behalf of the Republican party, and in the following year was de- 
feated as a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor of Wisconsin. During the 
contest between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln for the office of United 
States Senator from Illinois, in 1858, he delivered his first speech in the 
English language, which was widely republished. Soon after he removed 
to Milwaukee and began the practice of law. In the winter of 1859-60 he 
made a lecture tour in New England, and aroused the attention by a speech 
delivered in Springfield, Massachusetts, against the ideas and policy of Mr. 
Douglas. Mr. Schurz was an influential member of the Republican Na- 
tional Convention of i860, being largely instrumental in determining that 
portion of the platform relating to citizens of foreign origin, and spoke 
both in English and German during the canvass which followed. 

President Lincoln appointed him minister to Spain, which post he 
resigned in December, 1861, in order to enter the army. In April, 1862, 
he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, and on June 17th 
assumed command of a division in the corps of General Francz Siegel, 
with which he took part in the second battle of Bull Run. He was made 
major-general March 14th, 1863, and at the battle of Chancellorsville com- 
manded a division of General Howard's corps, which was routed by Gen- 
eral Jackson. He had temporary command of the Eleventh Corps at the 
battle of Gettysburg, and subsequently took part in the battle of Chatta- 
nooga. 

On the close of the war he returned to the practice of law. In 1S65-66 
he was the Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune, and in 



2lS THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

1866 he made a report, as special commissioner appointed by President 
Johnson, on the condition of the Southern States, which was submitted to 
In the same year he removed to Detroit, where he founded the 
Detroit Post; and in 1867 he became editor of the Westliche Post, a 
Germ r published in St. Louis. He was temporary chairman 

of the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1868, and labored 
earnestly in the succeeding canvass for the election of General Grant. In 
fanuary, [869, he was chosen United States Senator from Missouri, which 
office he held until the close of his term, 111 1875. lie opposed some of 
the leading measun 3 ol General Grant's administration, and in 1872 took 
a prominent part in the organization of the Liberal party, presiding over 
the convention in Cincinnati which nominated Horace Greeley for the 
Presidency. He was an active worker throughout that canvass. He 
visited Europe in 1873 and again in 1875, being received with marked 
[deration in his native country. On his return lie took part in the 
political canvass in Ohio, in which he strenuously opposed the increase of 
the national currency. Mr. Schurz supported the Republican Presidential 
ticket in 1876, and was made Secretary of the Interior by President Hayes 
on the 1 2th of March, 1877. This office he held until the inauguration of 
General Garfield ; in March, 1881, when he removed to the city of New 
York and entered upon the chief editorship of the Evening Post. Mr. 
Schurz was an eloquent advocate of the Republican ticket in 1S80. In 
1SS4 he i one "I the leaders of a faction of the Republican party 

denominated Independents. Mr. Schurz's utterances arc always listened 
to with great interest. A deep voice, with a rich German accent and per- 
aodulation, makes him a speaker of great eloquence. 
Ann.ng his most celebrated speeches is an eulogy on Charles Sumner, 
delivered in Boston in 1874. being asked by a lyceum bureau to repeat it 
at live hundred dollars a night, he replied he " did not speak on the 
memory of his friend for pay." 



ALBERT MILLER CARD. 

rt Miller Card was born in the town of Ancram, Columbia County, 
New York, on July 21st, 1845, ;m<1 is related to the Hon. Theodore 
Miller, ol ( Columbia County, who is now a judge of the Court of Appeals. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1876. 219 

He removed to Sharon, Connecticut, when quite young, and after attend- 
ing the public schools of that town for some years, he graduated from the 
Sharon High School in 1861. He was then offered a position as teacher, 
which he accepted. Young Card's taste ran to the law, however, and he 
soon removed to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he entered the law office 
of the Hon. Charles Wheaton. In less than a year his progress was so 
great that he was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of law in 
Dutchess County. He had been a Democrat from his infancy, and soon 
began to take an active part in politics. His bright and sparkling oratory 
soon became famous in the neighboring counties, and he was always in 
demand at political gatherings. President Andrew Johnson appointed Mr. 
Card to the office of United States District Revenue Assessor, with head- 
quarters at Poughkeepsie. He was also elected a school commissioner of 
Dutchess County on the Democratic ticket. Mr. Card then ran for Assem- 
bly against Warden Augustus A. Brush, now of Sing Sing Prison, but was 
defeated. Mr. Card removed to New York City in 1870, and associated 
himself with the Hon. Homer A. Nelson, then Secretary of State. 

Mr. Card continued to take an active part in politics, and has established 
a wide reputation as an orator of great ability and magnetism. In the 
campaign of 1864 he was on the stump for three months in the interest of 
General George B. McClellan, and in 1876 he labored energetically for 
Tilden and Hendricks. His clarion voice was raised for Hancock and 
English in 1880, when he spoke all through the State and in several places 
in New Jersey. 

The young man of to-day bewails the sad fate which has placed him in a 
degenerate age. The better qualities are not appreciated in this busy, 
money-making time ; to succeed in politics one must have moral faculties 
of a low order : that honesty in politics is an unknown quantity ; that 
ideas are nothing when pitted against the cunning of the ward politician 
or the moneyed monopolist. 

This is fallacious. To-day, as ever, ideas rule. To-day a periodical 
edited with brains and conscience does more, in a single issue, to mould 
public opinion than the machinations of ignorant politicians through a pro- 
tracted mud-throwing campaign. We do not decry the necessary party 
organizations. Demagogues find a large and profitable field in advocating 
" Civil Service Reform," much as it is needed. Organization is as neces- 
sary in politics as in the church ; and an attempt to do away with this is 
but a second Quixotic demolishment of a wind -mill. 



220 THE LEADINfP ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

A young man with ideas and courage can accomplish as much now as in 
any of those " good old times" so often sighed for, but which were worse 
th in ours. To-day is better than yesterday. To-morrow will be better 
than ti ' day. 

.Mr. Card, in conjunction with other thoughtful politicians, recognizes 
this, and cheerfully gives his time in an effort for the betterment of the 
political body, believing that pure politics insures liberty and honesty. 



JOHN A. LOGAN. 

[ohn A. Logan was born on a farm in Jackson County, Illinois, on 
February i;th, 1826. Here he labored as a boy. His educational advan- 
tages were limited to the common school in his neighborhood ; but being 
possessed of a high order of natural ability, he read all the English works 
of sterling merit that he could buy or borrow, and in early manhood he 
had acquired a liberal fund of useful information. At the first call to 
arms in the Mexican War he enlisted as a private soldier in the First Illi- 
nois Volunteers. He was soon promoted to the post of quartermaster, 
with the rank of first lieutenant, and held the position during the war. 
Returning to Illinois he studied law with his uncle, A. M. Jenkins. 
Alter holding the position of clerk of the courts in his native county for a 
short time, General Logan entered the university at Louisville, graduating 
in law in 1852. He rapidly won his way to prominence in his profession. 
Political life attracted him, and in the fall of the same year he was elected 
to the State Legislature. From 1853 to 1857 he was prosecuting attorney, 
and in 1856 was Presidential elector in the Democratic party. From 1858 
?6l he was a Representative in Congress, and in the midst of his un- 
reel term of office he enlisted and carried a musket in the first battle of 
Bull Run. Soon afterward he resigned his seat in the House, returned 
home, and raised a regiment for the war in September, 1861. As its col- 
onel he led his soldiers to the front. At Belmont, Missouri, under Grant, 
though compelled to retire, Logan proved himself a leader of men. The 
battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson followed quickly, and General 
Logan, then advanced to the rank of major-general, was in the brunt of 
the fight with his regiment. He was wounded at Fort Donelson. He was 
at the battles of Pittsburg Landing and Shiloh, and took active part in the 




James G. Blaixe. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 8/6. 223 

operations that followed. During the Vicksburg campaign he commanded 
a division of the Seventeenth Army Corps, taking a prominent part in the 
engagements at Port Gibson, Champion Hill, and the investment of Vicks- 
burg. These were all hotly-contested battles. Personal bravery under fire 
and coolness and good judgment in danger characterized his actions, and 
made him popular with the soldiers. Under General W. T. Sherman he 
marched at the head of his division to the siege of Atlanta, and Sherman in 
his official report commended his bravery. The highest praise from Gen- 
eral Sherman was elicited by the skilful manner in which General Logan, 
after the fall at Atalanta of the gallant General McPherson, in command 
of the Army of the Tennessee, assumed the position in the face of the 
enemy and in the confusion of battle. General Logan's biographers paint 
his picture on that day as riding up and down in front of the battle line, 
his black eyes flashing fire, his long black hair streaming in the wind, 
bareheaded, and his service-worn slouch hat swinging in his bridle hand and 
his sword flashing in the other, crying, in stentorian tones, " Boys, McPher- 
son and revenge !" The fortunes of the day were with the Federal troops, 
hut General Logan had been appointed in an emergency, and he retired 
from the command of the army, as General Howard had been appointed 
to the position. 

After the fall of Atlanta General Logan returned to Illinois and took 
part in the Presidential campaign, speaking for Lincoln in halls, churches, 
and in the open air. When General Sherman, on his march to the sea, 
arrived at Savannah, General Logan rejoined his corps. In South Carolina 
his corps saved the State capital from destruction by fire. When in North 
Carolina, in the early part of 1865, General Logan succeeded General 
Howard in the command of the Army of the Tennessee, and he remained at 
the head of the army until the surrender of Lee, taking part in the grand re- 
view in Washington when the Union armies were disbanded. Then he 
returned to the practice of the law, and in 1S66 he was elected Congress- 
man at large from Illinois by a large majority, and re-elected in 1S6S, and 
in 1 87 1 was chosen United States Senator. Failing in a re-election to 
the Senate in 1877, he resumed the practice of law in Chicago. In 1879 
he was returned to the Senate, and now holds a seat in that dignified body. 
General Grant received his hearty support for a third presidential term, but 
as Garfield was nominated General Logan gave him his allegiance. 

As an orator, General Logan is one of the most popular in the Western 
States. His striking personal appearance fixes attention to his utterances. 



224 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

lie does not care to employ the charms of rhetoric. The lighter graces 
■, are forgotten. To overwhelm his opponent is his object, and, 
convinced himself that he brushes away every opposing argument in his 
onward rush, he charges as if leading against an enemy's line of battle. 
His enunciation is clear and rapid, and his sentences gather force until they 
reach a climax at the close. In matter he is argumentative and convinc- 
ing. His greatest speech in Congress was in opposition to the Fitz- John 
Porter bill. Genera] Logan was nominated for the office of Vice-President 
at the National Republican Convention held at Chicago in June, 1884. 



PRESIDENT HAYES'S CABINET. 

Secretary of State.- — William M. Evarts, of New York, appointed March 
1 2th, 1877. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — John Sherman, of Ohio, appointed March 
8th, 1 

Secretaries of War. — George W. McCrary, of Iowa, appointed March 
1 2th. [877 ; Alexander Ramsay, of Minnesota, appointed December 12th, 

Secretaries of the Navy. — Richard W. Thompson, of Indiana, ap- 
pointed March 12th, [877 : Nathan Goff, Jr., of West Virginia, appointed 
•y 6th, 1 88 1. 

Secretary of the Interior. — Carl Schurz, of Missouri, appointed March 
1 2th, 1877. 

Postmasters-General. — David M. Key, of Tennessee, appointed March 
1 2th, [877 :__ Horace Maynard, of Tennessee, appointed August 25th, 1880. 

Attorney General. — Charles Devens, of Massachusetts, appointed March 
1 2th, 187-. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

CAMPAIGN OF i 880. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
James A. Garfield of Ohio. 

For Vice-President. 
Chester A. Arthur of New York. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania. 

For Vice-President. 
William H. English of Indiana. 

CONVENTIONS AND NOMINATIONS. 

The Republican party met in national convention at Chicago on the 2d 
of June, and nominated General James A. Garfield for President and General 
Chester A. Arthur for Vice-President. General Garfield was nominated on 
the thirty- sixth ballot. General U. S. Grant was a prominent candidate 
before this convention for a third Presidential term. 

The Democratic National Convention was held at Cincinnati on the 2 2d 
of June, and General Winfield S. Hancock and William H. English 
received the nominations for President and Vice-President. 

A national convention of the Greenback party met in the city of Chicago 
on the 9th of June, and chose as candidates for the offices of President and 



226 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Vice-President, respectively, James B. Weaver, of Iowa, and Benjamin J. 
Chambers, of Texas. 

The Temperance or Prohibition party chose for its candidates, in a 
ntion held at Cleveland on the 17th of June, Neil Dow, of 
Maine, for President and V H. Thompson, of Ohio, for Vice-President. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

fames Abram Garfield was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on the 19th 
of November, 1831. His paternal ancestors came from England and set- 
tled at Watertown, Mass., in 1635. Mis father, Abram Garfield, was born 
in New York : his mother, Eliza Ballou, in New Hampshire. In 1830 
they moved to. Ohio and settled in the Orange woods, then a dense forest, 
broken only by occasional clearings of settlers. Here, in 1833, Abram Gar- 
field died, leaving a family of four children, of whom James was the 
youngest, depending upon the exertions of a widowed mother. His boy- 
hood was spent in laboring on the farm, to assist in the support of the 
family, and in attending the pioneer district school about three months 

winter. Winn fourteen years of age he learned the carpenter s trade. 
His seventeenth summer was passed as a driver and helmsman on the 
Ohio ('anal. His early ambition was to become a sailor, but a three 
months* attack of fever and ague, contracted on the canal, changed the 
current of his life into literary channels. In March, 1849, he entered 

uga Seminary at Chester, Ohio, and at the close of the fall term was 
competent to teach a district school. From 1851, three years of his life 
were passed in the Eclectic Institute at Hiram, performing at first the 
double duties of student and janitor, afterward of student and teacher. 
His earnings, which by the closest economy he had saved at Hiram, did not 

r his expenses at Williams College, and he left college with a debt of 
five hundred dollars, which he afterward faithfully discharged. On his 
return to Ohio he accepted tin; professorship of ancient languages and' 
literature in Hiram College. The next year, at the age of twenty-six, he 
was made its president, which office he held till he entered the army, in 
[861. During this term he made frequent public addresses, both from the 
platform and pulpit, and established the reputation of being a felicitous 

i.er. 



CAMPAIGN OF iSSo. 22/ 

In 1859 he was elected to the Ohio Senate. His well-known character- 
istics as a legislator, his effectiveness as a debater, and his thoroughness as 
a committee man, were manifested in his career in that body. General 
Garfield's military services covered a period of two years and three months. 
He was mustered into service August 16th, 1861, and resigned his com- 
mission in the army on taking his seat in the Thirty-eighth Congress, 
December 5th, 1863, having been elected while absent in the field the 
year before a Representative from the Nineteenth Congressional District 
of Ohio, His ability and bravery as a soldier were recognized by the War 
Department in an order promoting him to the rank of major-general of 
volunteers "for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Chicka- 
mauga. " 

He was re-elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress, and successively held 
that office until January, 1880, when he was chosen by the Ohio Legisla- 
ture to succeed the Hon. Allen G. Thurman in the United States Senate. 
He served on the Committee of Military Affairs during his first term in the 
House of Representatives, and made one of his strongest and most effective 
speeches in favor of granting to Mr. Lincoln the power which he asked 
for drafting men to fill up the ranks, and it was largely due to the influence 
of this speech that a resolution to that effect was carried through the 
House. In the Thirty-ninth Congress he was assigned to the Committee 
of Ways and Means, and at once entered upon those financial studies which 
made him an authority on American finance. On the 15th of May, 1868, 
he made a speech on " The Currency," which is regarded a sound money 
manual and a cyclopaedia of financial facts. After James G. Blaine's, 
election to the United States Senate, in June, 1876, General Garfield 
became and continued to remain, till the end of his Congressional career, 
the acknowledged leader of the Republicans in the House. His speech in 
June, 1876, in reply to Mr. Hill, of Georgia, on the General Amnesty 
Bill, and his reply to Mr. Lamar, of Mississippi, August 4 th, won for him 
the reputation ol being the ablest and most forcible speaker in the halls of 
Congress. 

On the 5th of June, 1S80, General Garfield attended the National Re- 
publican Convention at Chicago as a delegate and as the champion of the 
Hon. John Sherman, whom he presented to the convention in a remark- 
ably brilliant and effective speech, the opening portion of which is quoted, 
as follows : "Mr. President, I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of 
this convention with deep solicitude. Nothing touches my heart more 



228 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

quickly than a tribute of honor to a great and noble character ; but as I 
sat in my seat and witnessed this demonstration, this assemblage seemed to 
me a human ocean in tempest. I have seen the sea lashed into fury and 
tossed into spray — and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man — but 
I remember that it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea, from 
which all heights and depths are measured. When the storm has passed 
and the hour of calm settles on the ocean — when the sunlight bathes its 
peaceful surface, then the astronomer and surveyor take the level from 
which they measure all terrestrial heights and depths. Gentlemen of the 
/ention, your present temper may not mark the healthful pulse of our 
pie. When your enthusiasm has passed— when the emotions of this 
hour have subsided, we shall find below the storm and passion that calm 
level of public opinion, from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to 
be measured, and by which their final action will be determined. 

"Not lure, in this brilliant circle, where fifteen thousand men and 
women are gathered, is the destiny of the Republic to be decreed for the 
next four years ; not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces of seven hun- 
dred and fifty-six delegates, waiting to cast their lots into the urn and de- 
termine the choice of the Republic, but by four millions of Republican 
firesides, where the thoughtful voters, with wives and children about them, 
with the calm thoughts inspired by love of home and country, with the 
history of the past, the hopes of the future, and reverence for the great 
men who have adorned am! blessed our nation in days gone by burning in 
their hearts — there God prepares the verdict which will determine the wis- 
dom of our work to-night. Not in Chicago, in the heat of June, but at the 
ballot boxes of the Republic, in the quiet of November, after the silence 
of deliberate judgment, will this question be settled. And now, gentlemen 
of the convention, what do we want? [A voice. 'We want Garfield.*] 
Bear with me a moment. ' Hear me for my cause,' and for a moment 
silent that you may hear.' 

The convention heard him through to the end of his grand peroration, 
and later, notwithstanding his protests that he was not a candidate, made 
him its Presidential nominee. He was elected " in the quiet of Novem- 
ber, ajter the silence of deliberate judgment," and inaugurated President 
of the United States on the 4th oi March, 1881. He had scarcely em- 
barked on his administration before he was stricken down by an assassin's 
hand. From the fatal wound which he received on the 3d of July, 1881, 
he was a brave and heroic sufferer until the 19th of September following, 



CAMPAIGN OF 1880. 229 

when he passed away. The life of Garfield is the fullest exemplification of 
the possibilities of American citizenship. He began life in the Ohio for- 
est, poor in earthly store, and by his own exertions, abilities, and character, 
he made his way upward to the highest place. His path led him by the 
log-house district school, carpenter's shop, tow-path, academy, and college 
to the Legislature, the army, the House of Representatives, the United 
States Senate, and to the chief magistracy of the nation. 



LEROY F. YOUMANS. 

Leroy Franklin Youmans was born on the 14th day of November, 1834, 
in that part of the District of Beaufort now known as Hampton County, in 
the State of South Carolina. 

He received his academical education in the Beaufort District Academy ; 
from this institution he entered the sophomore class of the South Carolina 
College in December, 1849, an ^ graduated with distinction in December, 
1852. 

He was admitted to the bar in January, 1856, and practised at the 
Beaufort Cou r t until the breaking out of the war between the States in co- 
partnership with Mr. Edmund Rhett, a brother of Robert Barnwell Rhett, 
a United States Senator from South Carolina. Immediately upon his ad- 
mission to the bar Mr. Youmans took a high position, and was, almost%t 
his first term, complimented by Mr. Petigru, who predicted for him a dis- 
tinguished career, the promise of which he has thus far eminently fulfilled. 
The first Presidential campaign in which he was engaged was that of i860 ; 
but the State being unanimous for Breckenridge, there was no necessity for 
any special exertion on his behalf. 

Mr. Youmans served in the Confederate Army throughout the war, from 
its beginning to its close, although, as a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives of the General Assembly of the State, he was exempt from service. 

He was appointed solicitor in the year 1866 by Governor Qrr, and was 
afterward elected to that office without opposition by the Legislature. Mr. 
Youmans made the last speech in defence of the parish system of South 
Carolina, in the convention called by Governor Perry in 1865. 

In September, 1867, he moved to Edgefield, South Carolina, where he 
practised law for five years in partnership with General M. C. Butler, now 



230 THE. LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

United States Senator, until Butler's removal to Columbia, and for some 
■ afterward as partner of John C. Sheppard, since Speaker of the House 
of Representatives, and now Lieutenant-Governor of South Carolina. He 
I >ok part on the Democratic side for Seymour and Blair in the Presidential 
ipaign of 1868, and spoke in different parts of the State. 
In the South Carolina State Reform campaign of 1870 he spoke through- 
out the State for the reform candidates, R. B. Carpenter for governor and 
M. C. Butler for lieutenant-governor, against R. K. Scott and A. J. Ran- 
sier, the Republican candidates, who were successful. 

In the fall of 1872 he removed to Columbia, where he has ever since 
practised law as the partner of William K. Bachman. 

He took no part in the Presidential campaign of Grant, Greelev, and 
< >'( !onor in 1S72. 

In the I 'residential campaign of 1876 he spoke throughout the State, and 
a most active part for the Democratic candidates, Tilden and Hen- 
dricks, against Hayes and Wheeler, the Republican nominees ; and for 
Wade Hampton, now United States Senator, and William D. Simpson, 
since governor and now Chiel-Justice of South Carolina, Democratic can- 
didates I tr governor and lieutenant-governor, against D. H. Chamberlain, 
then governor, and R. II. Gleaves, then lieutenant-governor, Republican 
candidates— the most exciting political contest ever waged in the State. 

He was of counsel for the Tilden electors and for the Democratic candi- 
dates for the State officers in the long-protracted and most exciting semi- 
Lical litigation ever brought before the Supreme Court of the State. 
The masterly document entitled " Reply of Wade Hampton, Governor of 
South Carolina, and others, to the Chamberlain Memorial " was from the 
pen of Mr. Youmans. 

is of counsel for the prisoners in the cases growing out of what are 

y known as the Ellenton Riots, tried in the spring term of 1877 

tie! Justice VVaite, of the Supreme Court of the United Slates, and 

I. ( 'iu nit Judge at Charleston, South Carolina. 

His efforts on this occasion commanded the admiration of all who heard 

him, and were spoken of in terms of unqualified eulogy in the papers of 

s : " The admirable effort of Leroy F. Youmans, Esq., 

i the Ellenton prisoners, at the trial in Charleston, is regarded as 

p& imen of eloquence, reasoning, sarcasm, and illustration heard 

in the legal forum for many days. 

His earnest and fervid defence of the people of South Carolina against 




Chauncey M. Depew. 



CAMPAIGN OF l8So. 



233 



the mad aspersions of unscrupulous enemies, from within and without, and 
his scathing denunciation of the means employed to secure the conviction 
of innocent men, will entitle him to the unending gratitude of every citizen 
of the State. 

In December, 1877, Mr. Youmans was unanimously chosen by the 
General Assembly of the State attorney-general to fill the vacancy caused 
by the resignation of General Conner, and was the nominee of the Demo- 
cratic party, without opposition, for that office in 1878 and again in 18S0, 
and was on both occasions elected by the vote of the people of the State. 
The resignation of the office of attorney-general by General Conner elicited 
the following complimentary tribute to Mr. Youmans by the News and 
Courier, the leading paper of the State: "The successor of General 
Conner will be elected by the General Assembly. Mr. L. F. Youmans, 
who fought by the side of General Conner in the forensic battles last winter, 
and was his worthy associate in the late trials in Columbia, is the most 
prominent candidate. ' ' And his appointment by the General Assembly 
gave rise to the following highly appreciative remark of the same paper : 
" Leroy F. Youmans, the new attorney-general, is an erudite lawyer and 
as eloquent and cogent a pleader as can be found at the Southern bar. 
During the canvass last year he labored with conspicuous zeal and abilitv 
for the success of the Democratic cause, but his great services in the politi- 
cal arena are dwarfed into insignificance by his masterly work in court 
during the proceedings for the enforcement of the title of the Democratic 
candidates, and by the research, power, and sagacity he exhibited in the 
preparation and argument of the cases against Smalls, Cordoza, and Car- 
penter. " 

His career as attorney-general of the State was *one continued series of 
brilliant and masterly forensic efforts, conspicuous among which was his 
arguments, in Boston, on the requisition for Kimpton. Of that, among 
other very complimentary notices, the Nation of that day said : " Mr. 
Youmans' s forensic oratory is of a kind that has not been heard in Massa- 
chusetts for many years, not so much because it is Southern, as because it 
marks a period as remote from us as Webster and Benton." 

He spoke in different parts of the State in the State campaign of 1S78, 
and in the Presidential campaign of 1880 for Hancock, and in the State 
campaigns of 1880 and 1882. He declined are-election to the office of 
attorney-general, and has since that time devoted himself to his private 
practice. In the election trials at Columbia, 1883, he was said to have 



234 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

surpassed any of his former great efforts. He was a delegate from the 
State at large to the Democratic Convention at Chicago in July, 1884, 
where he seconded the nomination of Mr. Bayard in a brilliant and elo- 
quent speech, which was a marked feature of the convention. 



JOHN SHERMAN. 

John Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on May 10th, 1823. His 
father, fudge Charles R. Sherman, of the Supreme Court, died, leaving 
.Airs. Sherman with eleven children and no income. Mr. Shermans 
cousin, also named John Sherman, a grocer in Mount Vernon, took the boy 
to his home, and kept him in school until he was twelve years old. John 
was a leader in mischief and in sport, but he managed somehow to avoid 
castigation by the teacher. Then he returned home, and after studying for 
two years in the academy in Lancaster, accepted the position of junior rod- 
man on an engineer corps engaged in improving the Muskingum River. 
While on this work, in the enforced idleness of the winter of 1838-39, he 
entered into a disastrous speculation in salt, which was for a long time a 
subject of joke among his kindred and friends. The future financier, 
whose name stands next to that of Alexander Hamilton in that respect, 
failed flat in his first venture in handling money. He purchased a lot of 
salt, and had it loaded on a scow, intending to float down to Cincinnati 
with it and sell it at a profit. Unfortunately, when the scow was within 
one day's journey of the mouth of the river, it was frozen in the ice, and 
remained there for two months. When spring arrived the price of salt had 
dropped in Cincinnati, and Sherman lost money. In 1839 he was thrown 
out of his position for political reasons. Then he wanted to enter college, 
but could get no money. His brother, Charles Sherman, who practised 
law in Mansfield, Ohio, invited his stalwart young brother, then nineteen 
years old, to study law in his office. 

Mr. Sherman was admitted to the bar on May 17th, 1844, at Spring- 
field, Ohio, and at once became a partner with his brother, Charles T. 
Sherman. From that time until 1854, when he was elected a member of 
Congress, he was constantly, actively, and profitably employed in the prac- 
tice of his profession. His style of oratory before a jury was not of the 
florid, ornamental type, but a plain, blunt, straightforward presentation of 



CAMPAIGN OF iSSo. 



!35 



[acts. Instead of indulging in the full, round, oratorical tone, his voice 
was sunk to a conversational key. The effect on his hearers was as though 
his thoughts were spontaneous, and he was quietly drawing all the law and 
the facts of the case from his client. 

The venerable plain brick residence in which Mr. Sherman now lives in 
Mansfield was built in 1849. O' 1 tne corner porch, as seen from the 
front, Mr. Sherman rests in summer evenings. The house is set in well- 
kept grounds and surrounded by a variety of shade-trees. 

In the winter of 1S54 Mr. Sherman established a law office in Cleveland. 
It was at the time of the agitation — North and South — over the Missouri 
Compromise, and Mr. Sherman, who had been a conservative Whig, was 
nominated by a joint convention of Democrats, Whigs, and Free-Soilers as 
Representative in Congress, and he was elected. Before he took his seat he 
assisted in the formation of the Republican party in Ohio. He soon com- 
manded the respect of his associates and the confidence of his political 
friends. When he arose to debate he showed a full comprehension of the 
subject, the result of careful and dispassionate examination, and his 
familiar acquaintance with public affairs gave weight to his words. His 
strong common-sense, a result of the balance of his faculties, made him 
equal to every emergency. His stoutest political foes found cause to 
respect his weighty reasoning, while his best friends found him unalterably 
attached to his convictions. 

The turning-point in Mr. Sherman's career was his appointment, by 
Speaker Nathaniel P. Banks, on a committee to visit Kansas, in 1856, and 
collect evidence in regard to the election frauds practised by advocates of 
slavery. A state of violence amounting to civil war existed. The committee 
took their testimony in the presence of men armed and ready to fight. 
Notices,' with drawings of skull and cross-bones at the top, threatening vio- 
lence to the committee, were found posted on the doors of the committee- 
room. The committee's report, compiled by Mr. Sherman, was the basis of 
the Republican campaign of 1856. On the side of the minority Mr. Sher- 
man began his career in advocating economy in public expenditures. His 
attitude was that of watchdog of the national treasure-house, not by ob- 
structing necessary appropriations, but by a careful, thorough, and logical 
course of reasoning. At the close of his second Congressional term he 
was recognized as the foremost man in the House of Representatives. 

At the breaking out of the war he was first to advocate raising funds at a 
high rate of interest, if necessary, to sustain the national credit and carry on 



236 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

the conflict. His speeches in favor of the Union were an appeal to reason. 
He believed that disunion meant a military despostism and perpetual con- 
flicts between the North and the South. 

President Lincoln's first meeting with Mr. Sherman was in Washington, 
at the time Lincoln went to Washington previous to his inauguration. 
"And so you are John Sherman,*' was Lincoln's first salutation after 
shaking hands. He stepped back and measured Mr. Sherman with his 
eve. " Well," he said, " I am taller than you are, anyway." They 
backed up against each other, and Lincoln was declared to be two inches 
the taller. From that time their acquaintance was. of a friendly nature. 

Mr. Sherman had just been elected to a seat in the Senate, and from the 
time Fort Sumter was fired upon until July, when Congress met in extra 
session, Mr. Sherman acted as General Patterson's aide-de-camp with the 
Ohio regiments. His great services to the Union cause were in his care- 
ful watch of the public finances and a support of the armies in the field. 
The caution of the financier was, however, in great critical moments swept 
aside in a patriotic speech. When foreign interference was hinted at, in 
1862, he said : " Rather than yield — rather than bequeath to the next 
generation a broken Union, I would light the torch of fanaticism and 
destroy all that the labor of two generations has accumulated." 

Mr. Sherman was the author and promoter of most of the great finan- 
cial schemes of Government, from the beginning of the war to the present 
time. His greatest triumph was in paving the way to the successful re- 
sumption of specie payments, on January 1st, 1879. He had been 
Secretary of the Treasury under President Hayes for two years, and when 
he entered the Cabinet no step toward specie resumption had been taken 
by the Government. Apparently he alone had faith that it could be ac- 
complished. A prominent financier in New York said he would give 
850,000 to be at the head of the line at the Treasury building on the day 
specie payments were begun ; but when the day arrived he could have had 
the whole street for nothing, To accomplish this result Mr. Sherman had 
to provide for the redemption in coin of nearly $350,000,000 in green- 
backs. He was also successful in refunding the public debt at a low rate 
oi interest. Since his retirement from the Cabinet Mr. Sherman has been 
successively elected to the Senate, ami in times of popular political excite- 
ment he has taken the stump, and contributed facts, figures, and logic to 
the campaign. His enemies say he is an icy man. His friends maintain 
he is a safe man to manipulate public affairs. 



CAMPAIGN OF l88o. 



WILLIAM MAHONE. 



237 



General William Mahone was born in Southampton County, Virginia, 
December iSth, 1826. He graduated with distinction at the Virginia 
Military Institute in July, 1847, ar 'd taught school the two ensuing years. 
Relinquishing the vocation of a teacher, he was appointed civil engineer on 
the Fredericksburg Plank-Road and the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, 
and in 1852 was appointed chief engineer of the Norfolk and Petersburg 
Railroad, and was elected president of the company in 1856. He was 
colonel of the Sixth Virginia Volunteers, Confederate service, brigadier and 
major-general successively of the brigade and division which bore his 
name, serving with distinction from the capture of the Norfolk Navy-Vard, 
in 1 86 1, to the surrender of Lee, in 1865. 

General Mahone was elected State Senator during the war, but only 
occupied his seat a few days. He was a candidate for governor in 1877, 
and was elected United States Senator in 1881, since which time he has 
commanded a large share of public attention. From 1865 to 1869 Vir- 
ginia had no status in the Union other than " Military District, No. 1." 
In the latter year she was restored to fellowship in the sisterhood of States, 
when a Bourbon and a Radical Republican, each a typical representative of 
his party, were candidates for the governorship, and the election of either 
foreboded harmful results to Virginia in her condition at that time. The 
Bourbons hated the Federal Government, and the Radicals hated the whole 
people of the South. At this juncture William Mahone, till then a life- 
long Democrat, appeared prominently on the political stage, and with the 
assistance of sober-minded Republicans, Whigs, and Democrats united in 
the nomination of a Liberal candidate, who was elected. It was from this 
coalition that the Conservative party of Virginia sprang, and which General 
Mahone was instrumental in forming. 

In 1S77 General Mahone was induced to become a candidate for gov- 
ernor, and entered the convention of fourteen hundred delegates with sixty 
less than a majority over all his rivals ; but quickly perceiving the doubtful 
chance of his own nomination on the first ballot, and realizing the necessity 
of scoring a quick and decisive victory over all his competitors, he wrote a 
ticket, gave the signal, and his candidate was nominated on the first ballot, 
and was subsequently elected governor. In 1879 General Mahone entered 



238 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

the canvass for the Legislature, opposed by the whole machinery of the 
Conservative party, which was in the hands of the Bourbons — the governor 
whom he had named two years before, all the corporations, and the Federal 
office-holders — but he carried the State by a very large popular majority 
of over 20,000, and he was subsequently elected to the United States Senate 
as a Readjuster. 

His tireless efforts to heal the wounds which the war had inflicted, and 
bring prosperity to his State, was a sufficient earnest to the people of Vir- 
ginia that he had their welfare at heart. He entered the Senate untram- 
melled with pledges, and said to the Administration supporters : " The 
people, in the exercise of their sovereign will, have placed the executive 
control of their affairs at the national capital in the hands of a Republican 
President. I am here to promote the popular judgment — to aid the Admin- 
istration as it may please to allow. It should have the opportunity of pros- 
ecuting its own policy by a friendly organization of the Senate, on this basis, 
as you may deem appropriate. I demand and expect nothing. " In this 
he is supported by his constituents. Educated in a school of science and 
trained in a purely scientific profession, he attempts none of the arts and 
accomplishments of rhetoric and oratory. His style of speech is plain, 
terse, and vigorous, and of that character which commands attention. In 
person General Mahone is delicately framed, but he possesses a wonderful 
capacity for work and endurance. His weight is about 115 pounds. 
Strong in his own convictions, he parleys with no " slow of foot" nor 
wastes time with grumblers or bolters. He uses his political power in the 
interest of no personal friendship ; his heart is in the promotion of the 
public good and the preservation of the integrity of his party. 



PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S CABINET. 

Secretary of State. — James G. Blaine, of Maine, appointed .March 5th, 
1S81, 

Secretary of the Treasury. — William H. Windom, "f Minnesota, ap- 
pointed March 5th, 1SS1. 

Secretary of War. — Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois, appointed March 
5th, 1S81. 

Secretary of the Navy. — W. II. Hunt, of Louisiana, appointed March 
5th, i 



CAMPAIGN OF l88o. 



239 



Secretary of the Interior. — S. J. Kirkwood, of Iowa, appointed March 
5th, 1881. 

Postmaster-General. — Thomas L. James, of New York, appointed 
March 5th, 1881. 

Attorney-General. — Wayne McVeagh, of Pennsylvania, appointed March 
5th, 1881. 



PRESIDENT ARTHUR'S CABINET. 

Secretary of State. — Frederick T Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, ap- 
pointed December 12th, 188 1. 

Secretary of the Treasury. — Charles J. Folger, of New York, appointed 
October 12th, 1881. 

Secretary of War. — Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois, continued. 

Secretary of the Navy. — William E. Chandler, of New Hampshire, ap- 
pointed April 1 2th, 1882. 

Secretary of the Interior. — Henry M. Teller, of Colorado. 
• Postmasters-General.— Timothy 0. Howe, of Wisconsin, appointed 
December 20th, 1881 ; Walter Q. Gresham, of Indiana, appointed April 
6th, 1882. 

Attorney-General.— Benjamin Harris Brewster, of Pennsylvania, ap- 
pointed December 16th, 1881. 






CHAPTER XXV. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 

REPUBLICAN NOMINEES. 

For President. 
James G. Blaine of Maine. 

For Vice-President. 
John A. Logan of Illinois. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES. 

For President. 
Grover Cleveland of New York. 

For Vice-President. 
Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana. 

conventions and nominations. 

The Republican party, in national convention held at Chicago on 
the 5th of June, nominated for the office of President James G. Blaine and 
for the office of Vice-President General John A. Logan. Mr. Blaine was 
nominated on the fourth ballot ; General Logan by acclamation. 

The Democratic National Convention was held in the same city on the 
8th of July, and selected as candidates for the two highest executive offices 
Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks. Mr. Cleveland was nomi- 
nated on the second ballot ; Mr. Hendricks by acclamation. 






j' <..- 



4W 




Robert G. Ingersoll. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 884. 2A 



TAMES G. BLAINE. 



James Gillespie. Blaine, the candidate of the Republican party for Presi- 
dent in the contest of 1884, is a descendant of a race of hardy Scotch 
Presbyterians, who settled in Western Pennsylvania about the time of the 
close of the Revolutionary War, there contesting with the Indians the 
right of possession, and wresting from the soil enough to sustain life. 
His grandfather was an officer in that struggle, winning deserved honors, 
and his father was an able and just local magistrate. James G. Blaine was 
born on the 31st of January, 1830, at West Brownsville, Washington 
County, in that State, and remained there, attending school regularly, 
until his father removed to the county seat, to fill the duties of an office to 
which he had been elected. At eleven years of age the son was sent to the 
house of a relative at Lancaster, Ohio, that relative being Thomas Ewing, 
then the Secretary of the Treasury, and a very well-known and powerful 
politician. Here he pursued his preparatory studies for college in con- 
junction with his cousin, Thomas Ewing, Jr., and in two years was able 
to enter Washington College, in Pennsylvania, from which, four years 
subsequently, he graduated with distinction. He was an active member 
of the literary society, spoke frequently upon all the questions which came 
before it, and was noted for having a fine memory. His kindly and generous 
nature was then confidently relied upon by his fellow-students when thev 
needed assistance, and he was equally a leader in manly sports. Shortly 
after he was graduated he became a teacher in a military school in Ken- 
tucky, and during his residence there he became acquainted with and mar- 
ried his present wife, Miss Harriet Stanwood, and shortly thereafter re- 
turned to Pennsylvania. In 1852 he accepted the position of a teacher 
in the Pennsylvania Institute for the Blind, in Philadelphia, where he 
showed himself an apt instructor and a man of industry and statistical 
research. The school still preserves the record of its early history, which 
he compiled for it. 

These ventures completed Mr. Blaine's preparatory course. He was 
now to be an actor in a larger field, and from being a preceptor of chil- 
dren he was to become a leader of men. Acting in obedience to the solici- 
tations of his wife, who was from Maine, he removed to that State in the 
winter of 1854, buying a share in the Journal a well-known Whig paper of 



244 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

Kennebec. He was then only twenty-three years old, but he speedily ac- 
quired a great influence, not only in his own county, but also throughout 
the whole State. When he went there it was as the old Whig party was 
just dissolving, and his relations brought him into contact with all the 
leaders of the Republican party, anxious only lor their, country's good. 
At twenty-nine \ ears of age he was the chairman ol the executive com- 
mittee of his organization lor the whole State, a position which has been 
practically his ever since. He begun as a speaker about this time, and his 
election to Congress, which came when he was in his thirty-first year, 
made that gift of great value. Mr. Blaine as an orator is not of that 
stereoytped class of which General Cass, of Michigan, might have been 
taken as the example, using a diffuse, pompous, and ornate diction, even 
while having good sense, but he is rather of the school of Cobbett. 
Everything has a bearing and a meaning. His matchless memory enables 
him to choose his weapons with ease, and his skill in composition and in 
arranging facts places them in the best light. His orations are the quin- 
tessence of common sense. Thev are not elaborately built up and orna- 
mented, but are of the same language that he uses at the fireside and in 
talking with his neighbors in countiy districts. In Congress his services 
grew very valuable. He had tact and judgment, and he supported his 
party thoroughly. He was elected rgain and again, and in 1870 was chosen 
Speaker of the House. His quickness, his extraordinary knowledge of 
parliamentary law, his historical researches, his fairness — all combined to 
make him one of the most remarkable men who ever occupied the seat 
once graced by a Clay and a Muhlenberg. Business was transacted with 
great quickness under his rulings, as he soon reached the heart of a subject, 
and was impatient at digressions on side issues. This important position 
he filled for six years, or until the party opposed to him gained the major- 
ity in the Lower House of Congress, a length of time surpassed by only 
two of his predecessors, and equalled by but two others. His address on 
leaving the chair was an able and affecting one, every word being fitly 
chosen. During the next session Mr. Blaine was the acknowledged leader 
ct the Republicans in the House of Representatives. In June, 1876, 
let M. Merrill resigned his place as Senator from Maine to become Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, and Mr. Blaine was selected to fill the unexpired 
term, being re-chosen in 1881. IH v resigned his seat in the Senate on ac- 
cepting President Garfield's invitation to a seat in his Cabinet. Thus was 
accomplished nineteen years of arduous service, in which he spoke on 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 884. 245 

most important subjects, and acted on all. He defeated the attempt of 
Governor Garcelon and his followers to override the will of the voters of 
Maine ; he upheld the national faith in the currency ; but he especially 
distinguished himself in his advocacy of a tariff and protection to American 
labor. No public man of the day has spoken more frequently or fervently 
in advocacy of the principles of his party. Facts and figures are made 
plain and clear by him. He has opposed the admission of Chinese 
into this country as laborers, holding that as they now are they are unfit to 
become American residents or citizens. On all these subjects and on 
many others he has spoken freely, both in Congress and elsewhere, the 
addresses being models of composition and statement. 

Mr. Blaine has three times been a candidate before his own party for the 
Presidency. In 1876 he competed with Morton, Conkling, Bristow, and 
Hayes, the last being the victor. In 1880 he was a strong rival to Gen- 
eral Grant, General Garfield being finally nominated. This year he led 
the field, Senator Edmunds and President Arthur being his strongest 
rivals, and was finally nominated unanimously on the fourth ballot. He 
supported Mr. Hayes in his campaign, as well as General Garfield, four 
years after. Of the latter he was one of the warmest friends, and on Gar- 
field's election he was selected as Secretary of State, filling the duties of 
that office with judgment and full regard for the rights of Americans 
abroad. When the shot was fired by the assassin, Blaine was by Garfield's 
side, and virtually directed the Government until his death. On President 
Arthur's accession he resigned, giving way to Mr. Frelinghuysen, and has 
since then been in retirement. He has not, however, been idle. His pen 
lias been busy with a history of the Government and people of the United 
States from the accession of Lincoln to the death of Garfield, in which he 
has been singularly successful. The history is couched in a philosophic 
spirit, is clear and accurate, indulges in no reflections against those who 
have been on the opposite side to him, and is easy and pleasant reading. 
It is the general voice that he has surpassed his great predecessor, Senator 
Benton, in the skill and ability with which the work has been done. Mr. 
Blaine is now only fifty-three years old, and much may be expected of him 
in the future. As an orator, in which aspect we chiefly view him, he has 
been one of the most able and successful in the United States. Without 
having the magical power of Clay or Prentiss, he has the ability of clear 
and convincing statement, of cumulative illustration, of sarcasm, and of 
argument drawn from homely life that would make him a dangerous an- 



246 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

tagonist on any subject. But as he never speaks on a topic concerning 
which he is not fully informed, he is generally able to enforce his views on 
even the most unfavorable audiences. His style is not the ornate or the 
discursive ; it bears directly upon the point at issue, and does not waste its 
force by blows in the air. Of American speakers on political or social 
subjects, he may justly claim to be regarded as among the first. 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW. 

Few among the younger men of America have achieved such prominence 
in oratory as Chauncey M. Depew, and if his ability may be tested by his 
powers to command the attention of a New York audience, there are 
scarcely none. Mr. Depew has not yet passed his half century, having been 
born in Peekskill, Westchester County, New York, of good old Huguenot 
stock, in the year 1837. His ancestors emigrated to this country after the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, at the same time the ancestors of the 
Jays, the Disosways, the Desbrosses, and the Delanceys came hither. He 
received the advantage of excellent training in school, and was sent to Yale 
College in 1852, completing his course and graduating in 1856. Among 
those who were his contemporaries at college were Andrew D. White, 
President of Cornell University, Warner, the humorist, and many other 
distinguished men. His abilities were recognized from a very early date, 
arid he had important positions assigned to him at the meetings of college 
societies, at reunions, and on commencement day. He elected the study 
of the law, pursuing his studies under favorable auspices, and in 1S59 
began business for himself in New York City. Here his acuteness of per- 
ception and his flow of humor made him a universal favorite, and he 
soon began reaping a comfortable income. In 1S63 the Republicans, in 
casting about for a man of parts and good character to head their State 
ticket, selected Mr. Depew as their candidate for Secretary of State, and he 
was triumphantly elected in November, taking his seat on the first of Janu- 
ary following. The office of Secretary of State is not the most important 
one in the gift of the State, nor is it one of which the duties are very ardu- 
ous, but it is considered the most dignified and desirable next to the 
office of governor. The most important function which he had to perform 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 884. 247 

was in taking the census of 1S65. Much apprehension then existed among 
the minds of laborers and workingmen as to the object of this inquisition, 
and many endeavored to evade answering the questions. But the rules 
laid down by Mr. Depew proved to work admirably in practice, and the 
results were copious and accurate, far surpassing those of the United States 
census of five years before. After retiring from this office, at the close of 
1S65, he again began the practice of the law, but soon received an offer 
from the New York Central Railroad Company to act as their counsel in 
cases where litigation was feared, and accepted their proposition, acting in 
this capacity ever since. Two years ago, when the New York Central was 
reorganized by the withdrawal of Mr. William H. Yanderbilt from daily duties 
as president, Mr. Depew was chosen second vice-president. In 1877, m 
consideration of his position as a college man and a lover of education, he 
was chosen a Regent of the University. He became noted for his skill as 
a speaker early in life, and each year that has passed has seen his talents 
improve. He possesses an unequalled faculty of placing a subject in a 
humorous form, and frequently is able by this ability to shed new light 
upon a question which had previously seemed to have but one side. His 
political speeches are models of oratory. The whole vocabulary of the 
language seems to be under his command, and the words marshal them- 
selves into line with the utmost ease ; he uses apt illustrations, is never 
disconcerted by interruptions, and carries on the even tenor of his argu- 
ment, mixed with grave or gay allusions, with scarcely an effort. Perhaps 
no public man of the day speaks in public with less labor. You cannot 
conceive of him as beginning a sentence that he cannot finish, or of mak- 
ing an argument which will not have its weight. During the past dozen 
years Mr. Depew has spoken before college societies, the Chamber of Com- 
merce, boards of arbitration, and the press of America, and on countless 
topics. Each one is handled with fulness and grace. His latest set speech 
was before the Produce Exchange, when it opened its magnificent new 
temple of commerce, the grandest now existing on the globe, in which he 
bitterly denounced the speculators and those who traded in a way to inflict 
injury upon the community. No other orator, probably, could have held 
that audience so long and so thoroughly. In after-dinner speeches every 
sentence, almost, is greeted with a roar of laughter, and his invitations to 
attend social gatherings are so numerous that he is compelled to decline 
nearly all of them. Mr. Depew is a man of thorough and solid parts ; as 
a lawyer he ranks among the leaders of the New York bar, and his skill as 



248 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

a railroad man is of vast use to the stockholders of the New York Centra!. 
He has often been mentioned for the highest offices in the gift of the State, 
and three years ago was the choice of a large number of Republicans for 
their representative in the United States Senate. He is still younger than 
most of those who have already occupied this position, and his friends be- 
lieve that the time will soon come when the seat once occupied by Silas 
Wright and William H. Seward shall worthily be filled by him. 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. 

At a great political meeting held at the Academy of Music, in the city of 
Brooklyn, on the night of the 30th of October, 1880, the Rev. Henry 
Ward Beecher concluded an introductory of Colonel Ingersoll to the vast 
audience as follows : " The gentleman who is to speak to you to-night is 
not speaking in a conventicle nor in a church. He is speaking in a great 
body of citizens, and I take the liberty, in your behalf, to say now that we 
greet him to-night as a man who has done valiant things for the right, 
without variableness or shadow of turning, for a full score of years. On the 
ground of a pure patriotism, of a pure humanity, and of a living faith in 
liberty, I give to him the right hand of fellowship. {At this juncture Mr. 
Beecher gave Mr. Ingersoll his hand.) Now, fellow-citizens, let me intro- 
duce to you a man who, I say not flatteringly, but with sincere conviction, 
is the most brilliant speaker of the English tongue in any land on the 
globe. ' ' 

Colonel Ingersoll was born at Dresden, a picturesque village on the 
west bank of Seneca Lake, in the State of New York, on the 1 1 th of 
August, 1833. After completing a classical education, he studied law, and 
located at Peoria, Illinois. His magnetic nature very speedily drew clients 
and a lucrative practice, and thus, under most auspicious circumstances, 
he commenced the voyage of life. 

His captivating speech, nominating James G. Blaine in the Cincinnati 
Convention in 1876, first brought him into national prominence. That 
effort he concluded as follows : " Gentlemen of the convention, in the 
name of the great Republic — the only Republic that ever existed upon 
this earth — in the name of all her defenders and of all her supporters — in 
the name of all her soldiers living — in the name of all her soldiers dead 



CAMPAIGN OF 1 884. 249 

upon the field of battle — and in the name of those who perished in the 
skeleton clutch of famine at Andersonville and Libby, whose sufferings he 
so vividly remembers, Illinois — Illinois nominates for the next President 
of this country that prince of parliamentarians, that leader of leaders, 
James G. Blaine." Before the campaign of that year had closed, every one 
in the land was familiar with the name and fame of the genial and brilliant 
orator, Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll. 

The subjects which he discusses in political addresses are systematically 
arranged, and so admirably presented with striking features, that a vivid 
picture of the situation is impressed upon the minds of his auditors. 

At a great meeting which he addressed in Cooper Union, New York, he 
gave his views on what he believed should be the standard of money as fol- 
lows : 

" I am in favor of honest money. I am in favor of gold and silver, and 
paper with gold and silver behind it. I believe in silver, because it is one 
of the greatest of American products, and I am in favor of anything that 
will add to the value of an American product. But I want a silver dollar 
worth a gold dollar, even if you make it or have to make it four feet in di- 
ameter. No government can afford to be a clipper of coin. A great repub- 
lic cannot afford to stamp a lie upon silver or gold. Honest money, an 
honest people, an honest nation. When our money is only worth eighty 
cents on the dollar, we feel twenty per cent below par. When our money 
is good we feel good. When our money is at par that is where we are. 
I am a profound believer in the doctrine that for nations, as well as men, 
honesty is the best, always, everywhere and forever. What section of this 
country, what party, will give us honest money — honor bright— honor 
bright ? I have been told that during the war we had plenty of money. 
I never saw it. I lived years without seeing a dollar. I saw promises for 
dollars, but not dollars. And the greenback, unless you have the gold 
behind it, is no more a dollar than a bill of fare is a dinner. You cannot 
make a paper dollar without taking a dollar's worth of paper. We must 
have paper that represents money. I want it issued by the Government, 
and I want behind every one of these dollars either a gold or a silver 
dollar, so that every greenback under the flag can lift up its hand and 
swear, ' I know my redeemer liveth.' 

In the winter of 1876-77 Colonel Ingersoll appeared upon the lecture 
platform, his subjects, under various titles, being attacks upon religion 
and denominational creeds. These lectures brought out replies from the 



• 



250 THE LEADING ORATORS OF TWENTY-FIVE CAMPAIGNS. 

pulpit and religious press all over the land ; but the country finally settled 
down to the conviction that Colonel Ingersoll's good nature so neutralized 
the shafts of ridicule which he aimed at Christianity, that the institution 
would suffer no serious harm from his attacks. 

The Rev. Dr. Robert Collyer, a celebrated divine, relates a story that 
once a friend of Colonel Ingersoll called on him at his home in Peoria, 
and noticing a handsomely bound volume of Paine, took it from its library 
shelf, and asked the colonel what it cost him. The reply was, " It cost me 
the Governorship of Illinois." There can be little doubt that in that sig- 
nificant answer the distinguished orator mentioned one item and gave a 
key to many which his creed had cost him. 

As a word painter, Colonel Ingersoll is an artist without a peer, and he 
has spoken sentiments than which no more beautiful or patriotic have 
ever been uttered. Closing a great speech, from which we have already 
quoted, he said : " Oh, I love the old Republic, bound by the seas, 
walled by the wide air, domed by heaven's blue, and lit with the eternal 
stars ! I love the Republic ; I love it because 1 love liberty, Liberty is 
my religion, and at its altar I worship and will worship." 



THE END. 



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